Page 18 Advertisements Column 4

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18380, 4 February 1928, Page 18 (Supplement)

T THE WANGANUI No. ILL PREVIOUS BEAUTY SPOTS— The Pink and White Terraces; The Champagne Pool of Waiotapu; The Champagne Cauldron of Wairakei. T HE WANGANUI (or, in the Maori, Whanganui) RIVER is one of our best-known beauty spots, and woven round it there is a very beautiful Maori legend, which you will all enjoy, I am sure. “ Once upon a time, two brother mountains, whose home was near Lake Taupo, both fell in love with a maiden mountain living near. The brothers were Tongariro and Taranaki; the maiden Pihanga. Pihanga and fongariro are still near Lake Taupo, but not Taranaki. For he was the rejected lover and was so torn with grief and anger that he tore himself up by the roots, and plunged recklessly through gully, and hill and forest until he reached the sea; thence turned north a little way and stopped all by himself—where he is now known as Mount Egmont. lie left a trail of wee behind him and a long, jagged scar on the bosom of Papa, the Earth. He cleft the hills and clove the forest. But presently from Tongariro the brother he had left, gushed forth a river of sweet water, following the footsteps of Taranaki down to the sea. The flowing of this "water soothed the wound so that the ferns and the forest grew again.” h lowing still is this beautiful river—Whanganui. These days, the tourist can embark by steamer at Taumarunui and sail down 140 miles to the mouth. You may spend the night at Pipiriki (SO miles down) and next afternoon land at the town of Wanganui four miles from the sea. Although the scenery is beautiful all the way, it is its best the last twenty miles. It is a river of pictures and peace, fern fringed and everv yard of it historical. Its name is really derived from the mouth Wanganui —meaning Great Inlet. In the early days, the last few miles were used as fishing grounds, and the process of drying fish was carried out most as settled next to Wellington, by the New Zealand ntre of great activity in “the ferocious extensively. Wanganui town w Land Company in 1840. days of the Hau-Haus—lß64-9. Peace is the atmosphere of the Wanganui—so different from the tempestuous stony rivers ot the south and west. The water is a nuiet grey-green with the most perfect reflection of every fern frond, every jutting rock. There is a strange hushed secrecy in many parts of the river arising out of the solitude and the quiet reflections in the water Ferns’ mosses, cliffs, hills; hills, cliffs, mosses and fern in never ceasing variety of colour and form; reaches and rapids; rapids and reaches; till the soul is surfeit with the beauty and the peace of it all. v V a far . rea , ch from the steaming .Cauldron of Wairakei, with its bottled effervescing fury to this study in exquisite grevs, greens blues and browns But that is part of the charm of New Zealand scenery—its diversity. One cold paragraph of paper could never do justice to 140 miles of undimimshed beauty but it must suffice: Whanganui—the Great Inlet—the river of pictures and peace. (To be continued.)

MAGIC MANNIKINS. $ C rr OLD up some white paper into several thicknesses and cut round illustration. Open out the paper and you have *' of dancing

TREE PUZZLE. Write out the following, filling in the blank spaces with names of trees, to read as sense:— II z 1 was a sweet young girl with ch hair, al eyes, and cheeks like ap blossoms. She was a p h. Her sister L d n a p n girl rather p p. with an grey complexion and a nose like a w 1 1 was jealous of her. It made her p e to see her .sitting on the b h in a new f coat. L d n deserved the b—, —h for her rudeness, but H z 1 said y—can have my coat. Then won’t we be a p r of p hes ? I always wanted to be in the 1 light. No wonder we are such p 1 r girls. THINGS YOU CAN’T DO. Mend the daybreak. Cook on a mountain range. Spend the King's crown. Fall down an inkwell. Sail in a partnership. Be beaten by a sugar-stick. GUESSING PANTOMIME. This game is great fun, and helps to develop dramatic talent in voung girls and boys. Act the parts. Other children are to guess what you are I—On the Street. Second Child: Be the traffic officer. Ppt up your right hand so the people will not r cross the street. Give the “come” sign with your left hand to the streetcars and automobiles. First Child: Be the driver of an automobile. Sit at the wheel. Watch the street signs. When the traffic off! cer puts up his hand, drive your car across the street. 2—ln the Restaurant. First Child: Be the man. Sit down at the table. R«£ad the menu. Order your dinner. Eat your dinner. Pay the waiter with a pound note. Tip your hat as you leave. Second Child: Be the waiter. Place the chair for the man. Hand him the menu. Write down the order on a card. Bring the dinner on a tray. Put it on the table. Take the money. Nod “Good-bye” to the man.

Weeks Great Daq Memorable Events in the history of the Empire* OftariGS Gonway' FEBRUARY 3: DEATH OF JOHN OF GAUNT* FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS AGO, on February 3, 1399, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, died at the age of 59, He was the fourth son of King Edward 111. and Queen Philippa of Ilainault, and was born in the city of Ghent in the month of March, 1340. during his father’s expedition to Flanders. Ghent was then spelt Gaunt, a fact which was responsible for the Duke receiving the name by which he is commonly known. At the age of 19 he married his cousin Blanche, who was the heiress of Henry, Duke of Lancaster, and through whom John subsequently acquired the title and estates of the rich and important Duchy of Lancaster, which made him the most powerful lord in the country, but for some years he refrained from taking any prominent part in the'affairs of the realm. In 1366 he joined his celebrated elder brother Edward, who is commonly known as the Black Prince, in the war which was being waged on behalf of Pedro the Cruel, and in the following year he distinguished himself at the Battle of Najera, which resulted in Pedro being placed on the throne of Castile. Three years later, when King Pedro had been assassinated, and the Black Prince had been compelled to return home on account of ill-health. John was placed in command of the English army fighting in France. He had then lost his first wife, and he married Pedro s daughter, in whose right he assumed the title of King of Castile. Soon afterwards he had to abandon his efforts to secure the Castilian throne, for he was recalled to England, which was in a state of chaos owing to the dotage of Edward 111. and the ill-health of the Black Prince, and he then became the virtual ruler of the country, lie was all-powerful, but extremely unpopular, and it was the hostility of the leaders of the Church which caused him to become the protector of John Wycliffe, the reformer, in which role he undoubtedly rendered a great service to the Reformation in England at its inception. * When Richard 11., who was his nephew and a son of the Black Prince, succeeded to the English throne on the death of Edward 111. the youthful king was loyally supported by the Duke, but his lack of success in conducting military campaigns in Scotland and France added to his unpopularity and led to quarrels with the king, who, to get rid of him, supplied him with an army in 1386 and he then made a further attempt to secure the Castilian throne. The campaign was a failure, and finally the Duke abandoned his claim and married one of his daughters to his successful rival, Henry, Prince of the Asturias. On his return to England the Duke again played an important part in State affairs, and was mainly responsible for securing peace at Home and effecting a truce with France. lie was given the dukedom of Aquitaine, which was one of England's possessions in France, and he spent a few years there, but his at governing his principality ended in disaster, and when he returned to England in 1396 he retired into private life. It was then that he married his third wife. Catherine Swynford, who had been his mistress for many years, and whose sister was the wife of Geoffrey Chaucer. It was this close relationship which secured for the father English poetry Hie friendship and powerful patronage of John of Gaunt ,vho was thus indirectly an important factor in Ihe establishment of England’s literature. The Duke was buried in Old St. Paul s Cathedral, where all traces of his tomb and monument were destroyed in the Great. Fire of [Copyrighted. 1