THOMAS BRACKKN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1136, 8 February 1884, Page 3

THOMAS BRACKKN.

• [From tho Sydney Bulh fin.] One of the most popular public men in New Zealand is undoubtedly Thomas Bracken, member for Dunedin Central, th" most important electoral district in the colony. Thomas first mounted the ladder of fame about fifteen years ago, when be carried off the first prize offered by the Dunedin Caledonian Society for the best poem on “ Porridge.” Every Caledonian in Otago who could spell, and hundreds who could only scratch their heads, went into training for this competition, and caused aa immediate and disastrous rice in tho price of oatmeal. When it was known that the prize was awarded to Tom Bracken—a young Irishman, a digger and sheep shearer from Australia great was the grief and consternation in Dunedin, and many a burgoo ban« quet was turned into gall and bitterness in consequence. But the worst was to come. Next year the Scotchmen offered ,another prize and Thomas calmly walked away with that also. The same thing happened year after year, until at last it got so monotonous and exasperating that no less than three score and ten blasted bards of Caledonian origin had oast themselves into the bay in sheer desperation at their repeated defeats, and had well nigh ruined the navigation of the port by the accumulation ot thei.’ remains in the channel. For a long time scarcely a vessel crossed the bar without getting entangled in the grisly skeleton of some departed poet, which frequently penetrated the ship’s side and sti etched forth a long and bony arm in the direction of the whisky barrels stowed away in the hold. Things came to such a pass that the S ciety had to give up the prize poem business altogether, as no Scotchman had the ghost of a show of winning against this tuneful rhyme-slinging Irishman. Thomas knew just a great deal too much about Caledonia stern and wild, and he could rhyme a whole clan or congregation of Caledonians into their graves as easy as wink ; so that there was really no use whatever in prolonging the hopeless struggle. No matter what the subject night he, whether “ braxy, 1 ' or “Brose," “Glenlivet,” or '“Cauld Kail Het Again,"Thomas smilinglg took up a poetic outside a jorum ot toddy, drew a mantle of Otago mist about bis shoulders, sniffed up the caller air of the mountains, and then for your life you couldn’t say whether it was the spirit of Bobby Burns, Wattie Scott, or the Ettrick Shepherd, or all three mixed together, that mane you jump in the air, cry “hooch?” and snap your fingers as you listened to the soul stirring pibroch of verse that poured a cataract of Caledonian harmony in your ea s, and woke the echoes of the colonial hills with its melodious and long resounding refrain. After this claim was well worked out, Mr Bracken published a small volume of poems, entitled “ Behind the Tomb” (whose tomb not specified), in which he threshed the creeds ot Christendom into smithereens, andjwepl “ bekase” there were no more creeds to conquer. The newspaper critics, who are always good and pious, of course came down on him for this. One of these gentlemen said that Thomas had surely mistaken his vocation -the book showed that Nature evidently intended him for a saw-grimler ! But Bracken was not to he put down. He started a newspaper of his own in Dunedin called the Saturday Advertiser, which soon became one of the most popular weekly journals in thecolony, and attained a large circulation. Therein his poems, tales, and sketches were published week by week, and then started to go the round of the New Zealand press, from the Bluff to tho Bay of Islands. At the last election for the House of Representatives, Bracken was returned by a large majority for Dunedin Central, defeating Mr E. B. Cargill and several older and more experienced men. Kome day not far distant, we hope to see Thomas a Minister of the Colony. In the meantime, under the nom deplume of Paddy Murphy, he contributes yearly more genuine fun and amusement to tho readers of the New Zealand press than all the other humorists and representatives of the colony put together could supply in a century if they were stall- ed on Joe Miller all the time. Thomas published a volume of poems some years ago, entitled “ Flowers of the Free Lands.” and will shortly publish in London a volume under the title of “ Lays of the Land of the Maori and Moa."