ODE ON THE OPENING OF THE INDIAN AND COLONIAL EXHIBITION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1509, 22 May 1886, Page 3

ODE ON THE OPENING OF THE INDIAN AND COLONIAL EXHIBITION.

(By Lord Tenoyaon, Poet Laureate.) Welcome t welcome! with one voice In yoor welfare we rajoice, Sons and brother*, who hare sent From Isle, and Gape, and Continent, Produce of your ield and food, Mount and mine and primal wood ; Works of subtle brain and hand, > Splendours of the morning hnd, '} \ Gifts from every British aone— Britons hold your own. .May we find, as ages run, The Mother featured in the Son ; And may yours for ever be That old strength and constancy Which has made your Mother great In our ancient island state ; And where'er her il<jj may fly (Glorying' between sea and sky) Makes the might of Britain knownBritons hold your own. Britain fought her sons of yore ; Britain failed—and never more, Careless of our growing kin, Shall we sin our fathers' sis : . Men that in a narrower day— TJnpropbetic rulers they— Drove from out the Mother's nest That young Eagle of the Weit : To forage for herself alone— Britons hold your own. Sharers of our plorious past, Brothers, must we part at last! Shall not we, through cold and ill, Cleave to one another still ? Britain's myriad voices call: "Sons, be welded each and all Into one Imperial wholeOne with Britain, heart and soul, One life, one flag, one throne " Britons hold your own, and God guard all.