OUR JINGO POET LAUREATE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 2847, 16 June 1896, Page 3

OUR JINGO POET LAUREATE.

The Man whom Political Services Elevated to the Bardic Throne of Tennyson.

“ To think that such awful stuff could have been written by a Leeds man ” was one of tho many uncomplimentary remarks passed upon tho new Root Laureate's official production, " Jameson’s Ride," Torkahiro has produced many great painters—Btty, Frith, Leighton are name ) which crop up in this connection—but tho biggest of English counties has not hitherto been famous for its poets, Mr Austin 'may, break the spell, for ho was born at Heading! ey, Leeds, 'and it is undeniable ~. at, disregarding his latest and “official" productions, he has written somo very graceful! and thought-compelling verso.

A-LKaEu Austin, Tub New Pour Laureate. Mr Austin is tho son of a merchant id tho " Woolly Town," on trio banks of tho inky river Aire. His parents being Roman Catholics, tho youthful baureato that was to bo was educated at fftoboyjiurst College, a famous and aristocratic Catholic school, took his dogreo at the University of London in 183.'), and Was duly called to tho bar at tho Inner Temple in 1837. But tho study of “ Ohitty on Contracts ’’ and " Addison on Torts,” the wearisome unravelmenta of tho famous typical case of “ John Doe versus Richard Koo ’* soon palled upon a mind which had a distinctly poetical bant, and tho Courts, we believe, have never been honoured with tho presence of tho present Laureate. His first acknowledged effort in tho “divine art of poesio” was “ The Season, a Satire," which appeared in 18151, and from that year up to the present Mr Austin has been a very f refluent contributor of verse to leading English periodicals. Also, ho has done much, and wo sincerely trust, more Useful work as a journalist, having boon a loader writer on the. Tory Standard and a contributor to that solid, eminently respectable nhd, truth to toll, very dull publication tho Quarterly Review. During the Franco-German war he for a time represented tho Standard at the head-quarters of the King of Prussia; Since the seventies Mr Austin’s political writings have been mainly remarkable for tho virulent attacks they contained upon Mr Gladstone and the Liberial policy, a fact which no doubt had not a little to do with his selection, by Lord Salisbury, as Poet Laureate in succession to the late Lord Tennyson. With his latest poetical efforts; mainly conceived in a spirit of hysterical Jingoism and moat adversely criticised by all the leading literary journals, our readers are no doubt fairly familiar. As a Poet Laureate Mr Austin is not likely “to set tho Thames a-fire,” and so long as he continues to be tho poetical champion of Jingoism that cause is assuredly doomed to even more ridicule than it legitimately deserves. Mr Austin is a great lover of flowers and has written very sensibly and not ungracefully on tho art of cultivating chrysanthemums. There are many who are of opinion that he should emulate Voltaire’s character, “ Candide,” and stick to his garden and leave verso making alone. An honest cabbage grower is at any time worth a dozen inferior poets.