NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1130, 27 October 1893, Page 12

NEW ZEALAND.

A FINE POEM BY MR W. P. REEVES.

A member of Parliament who has an ardent desire that the children of New Zealand should grow up imbued with a love of their native country, and who believes in song as a potent factor in helping on this development, suggested to the Minister for Education, who is himself a poet, to invoke the Muse for this purpose. The hon gentleman kindly complied, and the following stanzas are the result.

God girt her about with the surges And wiads of the misterless deep, Whose sweep ever rouses and urges Quick billows to sparkle and leap ; He filled from the life of their motion Her nostrils with breath of the sea. And made her, entrenched in the ocmrj, A fort for the free.

Her never the fever-mist flying, Nor blast of the desert may blight Nor shroud of foul smoke overli ing Dark cities of sorrow and night. But the laugh ot her breesa and her waters Is fresh upon mountain and lea To her children—the sons and the daughters Of sunshine and sea.

These us'., not fov spier, dour in story. They seek not as title to fame Stern camps w th their terror and glory, Bi ight courts with their homsg* of shame. Id peace to their bat le-neld pressing They seizeitieir sola booty—earth's spoil; .Their kingship in labour expressing Their lordship in toil.

Though young, they have learned of the ages; Though few, they are freemen and peers; Though poor, yet assured of the wages Slow fate will repay with the years; Though least ihcy and litest their nation. Yet this have they w m without s *ord— That woman with nun shall have station, And Labour be lord. ,

The winds of the sea and hish heaven Speed pure to her, kissed by the foam. The steeds of her ocean undnven, ■ Unblttedand riderless roam. So, free as they, land unpolluted, Thy fortress inviolate keep, Whilst thy peaks mid the tempest stand rooted, Tfiy cliffs front the ucep.