Original Poetry.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1928, 10 July 1869, Page 2

Original Poetry.

MEN AND MEASURES,

The hour of trial’s come at last; Of terror aud dismay. Stern ruin stares us in the face, Disguise it as we may. Misgovernment has done its work ; And now, on ruin’s brink, The cup our hands have mingled We in bitterness must drink.

Red-handed murder stalks abroad, Defying God and man. Britannia’s spear is in the rear That should be in the van. Amidst the yells of cannibals ' The British yeoman dies : His wife and children butchered Before his glazing eyes,

Proclaim a feast among the saints Within Exeter Hall ; Let burning homesteads, smeared with blood, Be painted on. the wall; Let them dance round an effigy Of the god of the Hau-haus, A British matron’s bleeding heart Within his horrid jaws.

The want of biain and want of will Amongst our public men Has turned the lovely Northern Isle Into an Ogre’s den ; And men who bore a soldier’s sword, Like cowards ran away ; While deeds were done without a name That shames the face of day.

A day of reckoning vet will cpme To those who live by spoil, Who fatten on calamities, And desolate the soil. Otago has her traitors too, Who well may veil their face : Their deeds a scandal and a shame, A by-word and disgrace.

Rew Zealand was a mine of wealth, A jewel of the Crown ; What is it now ? Alas, alas ! ’Tis crushed and broken down : Unless the people in their might, Sweep out corruption’s den, There is no hope, she still must sink, And ne’er may rise again. Craigielee, June, 1809.