STATION BALLADS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2231, 3 December 1896, Page 41

STATION BALLADS.

NO. XXIII.-" SO LONG." We're down to the laßt ballad, cliapa— at least, it's the last for a while ; I don't know if I've roused you at all or twisted your mouths to a smile : My songs have been most of them true and the smell of the towsooks is there— You'll admit that I've talked pretty straight if I ain't on for splitting a hair. There's fellows that's humping the awag to-day on the long dusty track— I've put in a word for them here that might lighten the load on their back ; There's the chaps ia the rabbiting camps— l've hailed them as brothers and men; So they are, and the grip of their hands I can feel in the turn of the pen. There's the diggers— the best of the lot— the men of the hard, honest band; .They've got their certificate here as the jokers -who opened the land ; And the good sort of shearers as well that keep clear of the low spieler crowd, They're a push— and deny it who will — that would make any young nation proud. There's the cockeys you think that I've wronged — as a class they ain't all they should be ; That's straight — but I ain't down on them if they ain't got a derry on me 1 And the best of the farmers I've seen I look on as kings among men — It's the pig-Tooting dummy Tve " set," and Fm willing to say it again 1 Oh, chaps, it's a wonderful land !-*wild mountainchains ringed by the sea ; It surely was meant from the first for the home of the true and the free. It's the true" and the free that I've sung, though I didn't go high on the wing, You wouldn't have listened at all if I'd set" fifty sky-lavks to sing. They talk of the wickedness here ! .Why of course there's the good and the bad 1 But there isn't a country on earth where a kind- | ness is easier had, For there's hardly a man but is straight or a woman that ain't sweet and true : There's exceptions, and big ones, I know, but you notice them more that they're few. And because the whole country's so straight there's no reason it shouldn't be stvaighter. If we don't keep on moving ahead we're bound to 1 go back 6oon or Inter. I Get a good honest down on a rogue till he alters hia waya or clears out. And don't Ist your feelings be soothed by a scoundrel who offers to shout. Believe me. a small crooked act is far worse than a hot-blooded crime (I ain't <ir^«sing dolls for a lark just because it's tL« last bit of rhyme) ; The itoixs of the country lies there— get a down on what's ruein and what's low ; | It's the chief of all social reform, and that's more than the socialists know. Oh, chaps, what a land it would be if every man's hands could be clean, | If the truth were on every man's lips and no one were grasping and mean, I fancy the sky would bo b'.uer and brighter the shade on the hill ; When I look at the fellows around me, "It's coming," I say— and it will 1 Though everyone has hissmall faults, let him show them his manhood's their match ; There's a mate that will still pick you up if you come like a man to the scratch. He woh't'see a blow that ain't fair but he'll claim on a foul, don't ypu" see? And "the God that -> is watching above ia/the greatest and best referee. However it be in tho long run,' of this you can always be sure. The man who is "cobbers" with Christ comes off best if he's ever so poor ;* I He'll get the most fun out of living and always be I found straight and true, While the others are crawling and growling and blowing of what they can do. I don't mean go talking religion with easy catchwords in your mouth, " t« But show in your lives you acknowledge that Christ ii the King of the South ; He'ii a King that will never oppress you, He don't go for tinsel and show, H&ain't got a down oa your pleasures, He don't want you stupid and Blow. When the horses you wanted are winning He knows what you mean when you shout, He knows just the way that you're feeling wlien a good bit of ground duffers out, He's with you when laughiog's in fashiqn and always can see through a joke, And I teil you there's sorrow in Heaven when any poor fellow goes broka I Well, if s time that this song had a finish : good night and good luck to you all ! May they soon find a job that ain't got one, may the pricfes of wool never fall ; May the tallies bt bigger than ever, may the headrace keep on running strong — There, chaps, all the ballads are ended and there's nothing to # say but "So long 1 " r —David M'Kee Wright. Puketoi, November 1896.