SONG OF THE GUMFIELDS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XXI, 23 May 1896, Page 589

SONG OF THE GUMFIELDS.

(FROM ‘THE BULLETIN. - ’ In the slighted, blighted North where the giant kauris grow, And the earth is bare and banen where the bush-bee used to hum, When the luck we’ve followed’s Tailing and our friends are out of hailing, And it’s getting narrow sailing by the rocks of Kingdom Come, There's a way of fighting woe, squaring store-bills as you go, In the trade of digging gum. And the new-chum and the scum And the scouring of the slum, And the lawyer and the doctor, and the deaf and halt and dumb, And the parson and the sailor, and the welsher and the whaler. When the world is looking glum, Just to keep from Kingdom Come, Take to digging kauri gum. In the scrubby, grubby North when the giddv sun is set, Andtheidiot owl cicada stops the whirring of his drum . When the night is growing thicker and the bottled candles flicker, And the damned mosquitoes bicker in a diabolic bum. There’s a wav of ending fret and of pulling down a debt In the task of scraping gum. And the new chum and the scum And the scouring of the slum, And the lawyer and the doctor, ami the deaf and halt and dumb. And the parson and the sailor, and the welsher and the whaler. When the world is looking glum. Just to keep from Kingdom Come, Take to scraping kauri gum. In the sloppy, floppy North through the dismal winter rain, When the man is merely muscle and the mind is nearly numb, When the old, old pains rheumatic fill the bones from base to attic And a sound of words erratic sets the pannikins a-tli rum, There’s a wav of killing Cain and an antidote to pam In the task of hooking gum. And the new chum and the scum And the scouring of the slum. And the lawyer and the doctor, and the deaf and halt and dumb, And the parson and the sailor, and the welsher and the whaler. When the world is looking glum, Just to keep from Kingdom Come, Take to hooking kauri gum. And the man of law has gambled through another man 's estate, And the doctor’s special weakness at the present time is rum, And the parson loves the clocking on a pretty maiden's stocking, And his stories (mostly shocking) scare the neophyte new-chum. By the smouldering ti-tree fire, when the wind is howling higher. They are cracking jokes that blister the Recording Angel’s slate. And the matters that they mention are too primitive to state At the scraping of the gum. But the new chum and the scum And the scouring of the slum, And the lawyer and the doctor, and the deaf and halt and dumb, And the parson and the sailor, and the welsher and the whaler. When the Day of Judgment's come O, won’t they be looking glum ! As the mighty trumpets thunder and the harps go tinkle-tum, And they’ve finished with the digging and they've scraped the final crumb, And the bottom’s gone for ever from the trade of kauri gum.

Samuel Cliall White