A Hill Near Hawera.

It is good for a land to grow old, to be mellow with quiet and years,
For peace comes after the battles, invisibly into the tears.

It was here that the pakeha came and passionate war had its birth,
But the grass has covered the woe of the black and bitter earth.

Now skull and musket and axe are buried in hallowing green,
And nought but the fallen entrenchments marks where the sorrow has been.

Little children are joyous on the hill of the ancient plain,
And heifers graze on the field where many men were slain.

—Douglas A. Stewart.

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