THE MINGY COCKATOO.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1178, 29 November 1913, Page 4

THE MINGY COCKATOO.

The attached lines appeared in the Sydney Bulletin some years ago ; Ten or fifty miles trom nowhere By a road that’s on the map, Where the bush is wild and thickest, You will strike a new cleared gap ; There will be a punga whaie And a bearded fellow who Drops his axe and growls “Good morning,” As he turns and stares at you. Look at him and stop and ponder— He’s a Mingy Cockatoo. He’s the man who pays the taxes, Raises children for the State, Works trom daylight unto darness, Hardly knows the day or date; Yet ’tis he cements the Empire, And from such are born the great. Stop, O citizen and ponder, ‘

Tbiuk these facts are somewhat new ? Why, the backbone of the country Is the Mingy Cockatoo. Who has felled the mighty forests, Ploughed the fern and burnt the flax, Cleared away the stumps and rubbish, Formed the roads and cut the tracks, Made your boasted butler merchant®, Builded up your meat exports, Brought the trade that made your cities With their.shipping aud their ports. Book around you, pause and wonder ; Think it over, it is true — He’s the maker of your country Is the Mingy Cockatoo. You may cheer your Transvaal heroes, Ye may sound your hie aud drum, Ye may laud the God oi battles, But remember ye the one Who is fighting a lone hander With the axe, aud not a gun— Fighting Nature iu the backblccks, In heroic silence, too — For the Hero of your Country Is the Mighty Cockatoo.