" FAIR GIRLS AND GREY HORSES."

Otago Witness, Issue 2761, 13 February 1907, Page 89

" FAIR GIRLS AND GREY HORSES."

By Wixl H. OGrLTiE.

Sydney: Angus end Robertson {''Snowy Rncr Series"; Cloth gilt, gilt top.

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Insrinct with life and youth, fresh air, and the class of the " Free Lands,' these verses, ballads, and poems strike a note of half pagan joyousoess, which the land and the men lose" all too soon in the stress of life work. When the " drovin' " is reduced to a mere question of £ c. d., the " good grey horse " is sold to tray his roaster a diiurer, and the " Fair Girl " serves np an empty dish at the mid-day repast these dreams vanish. It is, however, this very evanescence of youth and joy which gives charm to Mr Ogilvie's ver^e. H* docs not deliberately hide the monotony and dreamy details of the average bush hfe ; he has not yet seen them. He sees only the picturesque, the optimistic, the hopeful side of pioneer life, and it is not the " Grey Company " of the past that haunts him, but the merry company of the present, and when he says '' Goodbye" his heart still goes " dream-droving ■with the rest" : —

We've fought th« long- dry weather, "We've faced the blinding wet, And we were mates together, And I shall not forget. There is a buoyancy and a lilt in all the verse, a wliolesome outlook on life and ite troubles, which will sweeten many a dreary day and shorten many a windswept night ; and though a deeper note is not •wanting, it' is sparingly introduced. Life is a good thing to Mr Ogilvie, and those who catch the spirit and the lyrical charm of his verse will catch the joy of life too, and with that they could "steady the lead " or dream on " their drays " for : —

A lover is * lover still Though he drive a two-horee dray. And the bushman and the pioneer are the true " kings of the land," on whose efforts and success our very lives depend, and it is well when they rejoice in their strength and know that to them is deputed the preservation of the eternal youth of the world.

The Victorian tobacco grown last year commanded a ready market at higher prices than were obtained during the previous five years. On the Government experimental farm at Edi 20001b dry weight of cigar tobacco was grown. The crop of pipe tobacco gathered yielded approximately 1500ib. The experiments of the department arc to be carried out on a more extended scale.