TARAWERA OR, A TALE OF DRINK.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2361, 31 July 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

TARAWERA OR, A TALE OF DRINK.

(Evening Prjiss.) Oh list ye to the dreadful n?ws, As it was told to Of Tarawera on the booseAgain upon the spree. For long he had from drink abstained, From bis old antics grim ; So long had he the peace maintained, We all looked up to him. Though tempting there beneath his now, The purest mountain dew; Yet there for ages in repos;, .'-, He did "thedrink" eschew. Upon a winter's morn it was, : Hiß pranks he did commence; The 10th of June, he early woke To drunken thirst intense, i ■ ' All stiff and cold he did awake, And shook his triple head, Then took a draught of nearest lake As there he lay a-bed. But cold the draught to stomach [clapped, Heshuddered all adown, So Kotomahana's lake he tapped, That ;brand of great renown; He drank so long, he drank so strong, He dried that lake remote, Then tor a rare old mountain song, He cleared his dusty throat. That soiig well sung in double lyase, As solar thunder roared; Five hundred miles it quick did race, And still as thunder heard. But mountains have their tender parts As well as other things; Am) Tarawera's fate does show The evil tippling brings.

Those waters weak but warm, they [proved To him emetic strong; And soon, by queer sensations moved, He changed his opening song. liL .stomach, and his bowels too, ■ Did all begin to lift; . And sickening sore, a fiery stew, Fell from his throat adrift. His aching head so huge, it cracked, His face turned pale as death; Devouring tiame his stomach racked, And lighted up his breath. And then, oh sad! his inside gone; It's walls a blackened mass; Nigh all of movement and of life From his huge shape did pass. An inquest then was duly held, To show how all this happ'd, And every sage by lawcompnlled, Was in the jury clapped, A Coroner was sent np there, To sit the thing upon— A Captain he, of genius rate, And great such subjects on, By him the jury skilful primed, This verdict they repeat—- " Spontaneous combustion, sure, From drinking water—neat." Wellington, July, 1886,