THE BUSHMAN'S FAREWELL.

Evening Post, Volume LIX, Issue 11, 13 January 1900, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE BUSHMAN'S FAREWELL.

.*. The following comprehensive curse of Queensland is said to have been written by a disappointed "New-Chum." Had he remained i long enough is the country he would have found more than compensating gains for the ills he so forcibly describes : — Queensland, thou art a land of pests j; For flies and fleas one never rests ; E'en now mosquitoes round Jie revel, In fact, they are the very devil. Sand-flies and hornets just as bad— - They nearly drive a fellow mad. The scorpion and centipede, With stinging ants of every breed. Fever and ague, with the shakes, Tarantulas and poisonous snakes, Iguanas, lizards, cockatoos, Bushrangers, logs, and jackaroos; Bandicoots, and swarms of rats, BuU-dog ants and native cats; Stunted timber, thirsty plain 5 ., Parched up deserts, scanty rains. There's rivers here you can't sail ships on; , There's nigger women without shifts on j There's humpies, huts, and wooden houses, And nigger men who won't wear trousers ; There's Barcoo rot and sandy-blight, There's dingoes howling all the night ; There's curlew's wail, and croaking frogs, There's isavage blacks and native dogs; There's scentless flowers, and stinging trees, There's poisonous grass, and Darling peas, Which drive the cattle raving mad, Makes sheep and horses just as bad ; And . then it never rains in reas.on — There's droughts one year and floods next season Which sweep the squatter's steep away, And then there is the devil to pay. To stay in thee, Oh, land of mutton ! I would not give a single button, But bid thee now a long farewell, Thou scorching, sunburnt land of HELL.. A DISTINGUISHED SOLDIER. *»- — The career of Colonel Sir Robert Warburton, who died recently, is (says the London Graphic) of remarkable interest. " He was a son of Colonel Robert Warburton, R.A., who married a lady of the family of Dost Mohammed. Sir Robert was born in 1842, and was educated at Kensington Grammar School and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, gaining his commission in the Royal Artillery in 1861. Six years lajer he joined the Bengal Staff His first war service was in the Abyssinian Expedition in 1867-8. Ten years later he took part in the expedition against Ishkakot and Utman Khels. In 1879-80 he distinguished himself in the Afghan War, and was granted the brevet of Major. After the r; - ar he was appointed to the command of the Khyber Rines, who were raised to secure the free passage of merchandise between Peshwar and Kabul. Colonel Warburton's knowledge of the dialects spoken on the frontier was of great service to him in his work. He kept the Pass open until 1897, when, on the announcement being made that he was retiring, trouble broke out which culminated in the Tirah Cadpaign. For his services on that occasion he was referred to in the highest terms in Parliament." This notable soldier was a cousin of our Comp-troUer-General and Mr. Arthur Warburton, of this .city.