FAREWELL TO NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2624, 29 June 1904, Page 80

FAREWELL TO NEW ZEALAND.

Fare-well, sweet " Ao Tea Eca," land of beauty, Fair " Lore White Cloud," I bid thee sad

farewell. A raskct filled with jewels rare, thou art Kacircled by a zone of stoimy sesis As if in fea.r lest sacrilegious hand Shmld tamper with tli}' wondrous loveliness. Farewell! Thy shores in distance iade liora

view ; But thou from my heart's love "v\ ill never

fade ; And -nhcaesos'er I go. Llio glorious scer.es, Full of variety, that hide within r Jiiy tiiple islands will lei.iain with me, A dretm of beauty a.rul p. fond remembiance Of happy times lived with thee. Thy " Cold

Lakes," Fivo houris resting in the paradise Of thy fair biuh, •wherein the brilliant rata .Shines like a spsikUng gem. Grant! Aor.^ngi, Lofty " Cioud-pier ex, ' raising in his pride H»3 hoary snow-vrhite head above the clouds, And viewing 1 with calirt fiont the desolation Worked by lv« brother Sefton aKol himself; Ai-.d tlie-i thei Wonderland of the North Isle — And Wonderland indeed, — where steaming Bubbling, mud pools, and streams of boiling

wa<er. High slioolir^ eevsers and loud fumarolas. Sending foitli 3eU of steam and burning heat, Meet us ?.l cvciy tui-n. Greatest of all Wannpiigu. the piou'l kipg of all ins kind — Well na.«red ' Black Water," — like 1 a soveieign

lord Ruled in liis mere caprice: now sleeps in calm And indolent lepoee, now leaps on high, Dealing; destiuction, if wnwary mortal Tempi, him by their approach. If I should tiy To tell one-half of all tlie wondrous things, Of all the beauty that thou hast stored up F« t!-Q=e thpt conic to fird it, J sf'ould spend My life in vain attempt. F'loiigiL for me That I have t-een thee, and I know how fait* The lam! is thst I long to see again. Farewell, sweet '" Ao Tea Roa," " Long "White

Cloud": Yet say I rot farewell, but " Kia-oia," Fair land of loveliness, " All joy to thee." •.- *-C A 'Olpjjtg.

April, 1904,