Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 6, October 1966
AUCKLAND PROVINCE N.Z. CHRISTMAS 1897
Loveliest, yet lightly held in men's regard,
Rich, while her wealth men scarce have sought to win,
Proud of the past her rulers made so hard
The distant North sends greetings to her kin!
Unaided she by favour of the State,
As Cinderella, scorn'd by all her blood;
Yet ev'n to her, for kindness fain to wait,
Comes in its tide her look'd-for fortune's flood.
Men wake at last to know her fair of face,
Men feel at last how much she may bestow,
Whose sea-board laps the bush-clad mountain's base,
Whose tropic fruits 'neath temper'd sunshine grow.
Resources? Ay; in towering forest tree,
In beeves that pasture on a thousand hills,
Red gold that waits for men to set it free,
Coal at the call of world-wide labour's mills.
Here noble rivers roll their silver tide
By prosperous hamlets set in beauty rare,
That laden ships may pass in kingly pride
Their costly cargoes to the world to bear.
Thus arm'd to conquer, richly thus endow'd,
This Northern land doth something seek beside –
Her neighbours' love she fain would be allow'd,
And sends this Christmas Greeting far and wide.
Here shall men learn to know her and to love,
Shall read, writ large, the record of her worth;
So in the South shall hearts be stirr'd to prove
The clamant glories of the teeming North!
E. H. WYATT
This poem occupied the first page of a large well illustrated book entitled "The Resources of N.Z.", the first section of which was published in December l897. Edited by G.E. Elderton, the first man to launch a Newspaper north of Auckland, the book deals with the primary and secondary products of the Auckland Province, which was still smarting under a sense of lost dignity because of the removal of the seat of Government to Wellington in 1865.
We acknowledge our indebtedness to Mrs. G. Aitken of Kaitaia for bringing the book to our notice last year and to the Publishers for articles of particular interest to Ohinemuri.