CANDID, IF NOT COMPLIMENTARY.

Manawatu Times, Volume IV, Issue 52, 30 June 1880, Page 2

CANDID, IF NOT COMPLIMENT ARY.

The great Pro-consul was by no means complimentary when alluding to the Premier's .address to the electors of Leeston, whom he characterised, as clod-hopper country bumpkins and poor deluded souls whom the blood-sucking vampire juggled into the belief that he benefitted them; by putting money into their pockets with one hand, and taking it out with the other To immortalise the expression, some Southern " pole " has thrown off the following epic, which he has dubbed THE "VAMPIRE" .&Nl> THE BUMPSINS. The Premier came downr-so~at least we are told— :; I.ike a wolf clad m wool, oil his innocent fold ; And he chuckled, and muttered, " These rustics \ shall see % " That m this. fair laid Hall-mighty I'll be. As the leave 3of the forest fell^f ithered and sere, So his words fell on all save the dull rustic ear, ; And the people remembered the dorse of his brand, For the scbj: of the gridiron wa3 left on the land. Bat soon the Avenger' Ma banner unfurled, The " Vampire " revealed to the gaze of the world, Which those that were " bumpkins " beheld with ■ ' a throb, ■■ ' ' . "•"- ; . While those that were wiser cried. "One for his Nob I" : . :... .• The people at last are aroused from their dream. Though still sucks the creature the country's life stream; - - ' ■ • ■ : ; But none but sheer madmen, or "bumpkins" or fools, ■"■■■.- '- ■ Will see themselves crushed by the "vamnire" who rules. Beware of the man who is trusted with .power ; Beware le3t your children should yet curse that hour; ■ . ! Beware lest such men hold your fate m their. hands ; . . . ; .■■■■•;.• Beware lest you nurtore a. curse m the lana^