# The Three Colonies of Australia/Part 1/Chapter 15

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London: Ingram, Cooke and co., pages 161–168
CHAPTER XV.
SONGS OF THE SQUATTERS.
AMONG the "signs of the times" during Sir George Gipps' government, we notice a decided progress in the literature of the colony: verse as well as prose of no mean order was called into existence by the fierce contest between the colonists and their governor. We give a few extracts from the colonial newspaper of 1845. They may be received as evidence of some value by those who do not care to dive into any of the reports we have quoted on important but not very amusing questions.
THE BUSHMAN'S COMPLAINT.
The commissioner bet me a pony I won So he cut off exactly two-thirds of my run; For he said I was making a fortune too fast, And profit gained slower the longer would last.
He remark'd, as devouring my mutton he sat, That I suffer'd my sheep to grow sadly too fat; That they wasted the waste land, did prerogative brown And rebelliously nibbled the droits of the crown;
That the creek that divided my station in two Show'd nature design'd that two fees should be due. Mr. Riddel assured me 'twas paid but for show, But he kept it and spent it, that's all that I know.
The commissioner fined me because I forgot To return an old ewe that was ill of the rot; And a poor, wry-neck'd lamb that we kept for a pet, And he said it was treason such things to forget.
The commissioner pounded my cattle, because They had mumbled the scrub with their famishing jaws On the part of the run he had taken away, And he sold them by auction the cost to defray.
The Border police were out all the day, To look for some thieves who had ransack'd my dray; But the thieves they continued in quiet and peace, For they robb'd it themselves, had the Border police.
When the white thieves were gone next the black thieves appear'J, My shepherds they waddied, my cattle they spear'd; But for fear of my license I said not a word; For I knew it was gone if the government heard.
The commissioner's bosom with anger was fill'd Against me because my poor shepherd was kill'd; So he straight took away the last third of my run, And got it transferr'd to the name of his son.
The cattle that had not been sold at the pound, He took with the run at five shillings all round, And the sheep the blacks left me at sixpence a head, And a very good price the commissioner said.
The governor told me I justly was served; That commissioners never from duty had swerved; But that if I'd apply for any more land, For one pound an acre he'd plenty on hand.
TITYRE TU PATULÆ, &c.
An Australian Version.
ARGUMENT.
Mivins, a Port Phillipian squatter, has been bought out of his run. On his road, with his sheep, looking for a new station, he meets Timmins, an old "lag," who, by "tipping" the Clerks at the Crown Land Office, has had his run kept out of the government sales.
"THE ASSYRIAN CAME DOWN LIKE THE WOLF ON THE FOLD'
The commissioner 'll come with his wolves to my fold,
And order my station and sheep to be sold;
For of New Regulations I can't pay the fee,
So my fold must go into Gipps' treasury.   With their white silky fleeces, my ewes will be seen
Disporting at eve with their lambs on the green
Next morning all dusty, and panting, and hot,
Ewes, wethers, and lambs will be off to the pot;   For the gov'nor 'ill issue his new regulations,
That all must pay twice, or p'raps thrice, for their stations;
And the purse of the squatter the treas'ry must fill,
Just as much and as oft as the gov'nor shall will.   And there be my wheat to be reap'd by the blacks,
Because I can not pay the governor's tax.
And the huts will be silent, their occupants gone,
The yards all unswept, and the squatter undone.
And the wealth of Australia, wool, commerce, and ships,
Will be melted like wax at the breath of a Gipps.
LORD STANLEY AND MR. CARDWELL.
Scene, the Colonial Office.—Lord Stanley discovered reading the advertisement of the Times, when enters Mr. Cardwell.
THE WOOL LIEN.
THE "DEVIL AND THE GOVERNOR."
A FRAGMENT.
|The Governor, after some parley, excuses himself from offering hospitality on the grounds of the lateness of the hour, and that he does not himself drink "grog;" to which answers the
SIR GEORGE AND THE GIBBET.
ON THE GOVERNOR'S BEING PRESENT AT A REHEARSAL OF THE NEW DROP AT WOOLLOMOOLOO GAOL, FEB. 3, 1845.
Pervading Gipps! whose penetrating soul
The least o'erlooks, the mightiest can control;
Now drowning towns, now decimating quills,
Now taxing provinces, now taxing bills;
Or when thy jaded spirit seeks for ease,
And e'en misgovernment has ceased to please,
Just acting o'er to dissipate thy gloom,
The dread rehearsal of a felon's doom!
THE GUNDAGAI FLOOD.
Ye watermen of Gundagai
Who're grounded in the mud,
Whose huts, not quite triumphantly,
Have battled with the flood;
Your new allotments haste to buy,
And pay for, ere you go,
For the old ones are all gone
To the settlements below.   New Holland lacks much water
Her flocks and herds to keep;
Your streets are little rivulets,
Your homes are in the deep.
With punts, canoes, and jolly boats,
From hut to hut ye go:
As ye swim with the stream
To the settlements below.   Your wives and children's drowning cries
Shall rise in every shower;
They swam their last at Gundagai,
In that ill-omened hour;
And as the auction-hammer fell
To "gone," why 'twas a "go:"
For you float in your boats
O'er the settlements below.   Then Gundagai, then Gundagai,
Be liberal with your purse,
Again your town allotments buy
"For better and for worse;"
And if, as further still you wend,
To lands still worse you go,
Gipps will still stand your friend
In the settlements below.
* ↑ The author of this fierce poetical summary of Australian wrongs was a young gentleman born and bred in the colony. We give it, therefore, nearly at length, not only as evidence of colonial feeling, but of colonial talent.
* ↑ In consequence of this decision, a hundred people were drowned in this same township in 1851.
Footnotes