A MATTER OF POPULATION

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8182, 25 July 1912, Page 21

A MATTER OF POPULATION

(From tho Bulletin.) All in the elder ago of gold. Stark saint and happy sinner Pursued across the mountains cold Their breakfast or their dinner; The chop, the cutlet, or the steak. Of bacon fried with liver. They hunted down tho wilding brake With hound, and horn, and Quiver. Sometimes in .cheerful hunger tree They caught a crayfish napping. Or spent long days beside the sea Engaged in oyster trapping: And it might hap. as Sagas tell. When Autumn winds were blowing,--Deep in purple-bosomed dell They snared some wild beer flowing.In after ages, somewhat less ■ ' With gold of lancy shining, A shepherd person came to bless The pleasant hour of d : ning; He piped upon the mountains high. Whose forest plumes were wavy. Shrill aones of mutton ill to fry. And served with sauce and gravy. His younger brother, with a hoe, 1 _ Tho flat and valley tickled, And taught young cabbages to grow. And onions to ho pickled; And when they killed the fatted calf. 1 Or murdered lambkins simple, Mon saw the cauliblossom’s laugh. The dark potato's dimple. Then someone who was very wise ' Invented cash-and trading, , And hills, and duns, and shops, and lies. And hots, and bills of lading; The golden age had passed away. And though it scorned a pity. Some patriot thought of bricks to lay. And went and built a city. The hunter's horn was in his hand. But not to chase bis dinner. He blew it in the German band, A sad and thirsty sinner; The shepherd left his mountain top. And brought his young lambs bleating To hang them in a butcher's shop For John and Mary's eating. The cabbage-grower dropped his hoe, His head, though furnished sparsely. Might heln his hank account to grow Through sales of beans and parsley; And ho who once the crayfish caught.' Or snared the oyster sleeping. Now to a midnight harvest brought Cash for a Dago’s reaping. And none there was could win a cent. Or sell one pumpkin peeling, .Unless a score of others wont To help him in his dealing: And always someone took a toll As rent of other's labor, And everybody owned his soul By favor of his neighbour. But some were left in farm and field. Lost folk with none to heed them. Who gathered in the country’s yield,. And let the city Meed them; For every one who labored there. In times of dearth or plenty, His lamb or sack of wheat must share To keep an idle twenty. And thus the-striving people bent Their back's for wealth’s creation. Holding an empty continent As an enlightened nation. And clinging to a truth as big As Tory souls that tell it; It takes one man to grow a pig And fifty-five to sell it. —CURSE O' MOSES. N.S.W.