Our New Zealand Poem by Rod Morris

Aeons before the Moriori, and long before the Maori.
This land was ruled by nature, the king of all was kauri.
The moa roamed in freedom, it had no one to fear.
Virgin forests straight and tall, without the rampant deer.

Eighteen hundred years on, Europeans stood upon these lands.
A mere two hundred more to rape it, with axes fires and dams.
Whalers with their rats and cats, were cause of much remorse.
Briton's came, what did they bring? The golden-headed gorse.

We stocked the land with possum, with rabbit, weasel, stoat.
We poisoned streams, polluted air, erosion coast to coast.
Let all of us who live here, think of what where worth.
We have to work in harmony, for the good of Mother Earth.

Let's pull together, not apart, we all must understand.
Each of us are caretakers, of a rich and wondrous land.
It most important we leave behind, a country near pristine.
So all of those who follow on live better for our dream.