MR CASTLETON'S LINES: A REVIEW.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 2982, 25 August 1891, Page 3

MR CASTLETON'S LINES: A REVIEW.

TO THE KDITOK. Sin, —Some Terses, or rather what the author, I presume, would term a poem, appear in your issue of Tuesday last, the author being aMrW, C. Castleton. This gentleman is known to 1110 by repute only, and I have not yet had the pleasure of becoming personally acquainted with him. He first acquired colebrity in connection with a saurian monster, said to resemble either a crocodile or a calf, which Mr C. imagined at one time infested his farm, and which used t» draw its alimentary supplies from Mr (.Jnaltrough's slaughter yard, preferring meat properly skinned and dressed by a butcher to that slain by itself. At the last general election Mr Castleton modestly sought a seat in Parliament and opposed Mr Bryce as a candidate, in the [Socialistic interest, for Waikato. The splendid fight he made for this seat is a matter of history. He conducted the contest with much energy and bull-dog courage, and retired with great dignity after vainly attempting to make a speech. Mr Castleton is, however, of a retiring disposition, and the only reason for appending his name to the verses referred to above is, I expect, that the responsibility of their authorsliii) may not rest on innocent .shoulders. Mi Castleton attributed his failure as an orator to illness. It is gratifying to notice that he lias recovered sufficiently to write verse ; but, Mr Editor, you should ba more careful with it, and not administer it to your readers in such large dosei : there is none too much room at the Hospital now, and any midden influx of patients might put the staff to great inconvenience. The first verse of Mr C.'s rhyme is introductory. In thin we are informed that Mr C. has been gleaning pearls from some lines of noble thought written by a "sweet singer of the Thames," who Mr C. surmises must be suffering from an enlargement of the heart. To endeavour to glean pearls from Mr C.'s lines would be "unrequited toil, ' and as this, Mr C. informs us, is " bitter far than death's chill hand," it will be better not to make the attempt. The second •rerse is enigmatical, and themeauing of the following lines most obscure :— From labour conies the majesty That makes a man a kirv,'. Such never could have been a curse Until it was abused. Whether it is the majesty, the labour or the king that is a curse is loft an open question, but as it may be either, we may, as the showman told tlio inquisitive little boy. " pay our money and take our choice." The third verse opens with the dogmatic assertion : Sweet's labour's bread when bread is won. This is a matter entirely dependent 011 the baker. When the condition of the barm or the sponge is not favourable, labour's bread ih as apt to be sour as any other bread made under similarly inauspicious circumstances. In the next two verses, Mr C. hopes tho day will speed along when the honey industry will bo wiped out owing to the extinction of drones, Mr C. must know that it is necessary for the procreation of the honey ben that drones should exist, but perhaps ho may have some plan of his own for preserving these industrious little insects from total annihilation. When the drones become extinct, Mr C. prophecies that we shall all be " true noblemen " in our own little tin-pot kind of a way. In the sixth verse, MrC. becomes interrogative, and asks the monopolists and drjnes who our heroes are. He sings : Our heroes now. Ah ! who arc they, Monopolists and drones .' Why he should imagine these parties to be specially capable of answering the question i» puzzling, but I think very probably Mr C. is ignorant of tho rules of punctuation, and through misplacing the note of interrogation has put a different construction on the first two lines of this versa to that which he intended. He is paradoxical throughout the verse, however, for how the monopolists and drones can bo said to despise toil whilo actively engaged in garnering all the good of the earth is not clear. The said monopolists and drones are also said to "stretch hands of snow." Whatever sort of hands these may be, it is hard to conjecture, unless perhaps our author meant to imply that the monopolists and drones were guilty of keeping their hands clean. To many of the great unwashed, clean hands, are an abomination, and have the same, elfect on them as a red rag has on a bull, and a man who desires to keep well with this class and pass as a "toiler" must be able to show as his credentials a pair of dirty paws, not nocessarily for publication, however, but as a guarantee of good faith. In the next verse, we have Mr C.'s definition of a hero, and learn that those who, after climbing up to " the topmost heights of thought," turn round and "look down upon the plains of woa" are " our iwatchloss heroes true." If those matchless heroes wf Mr C.'s had remained 011 "the plains of woe " (wherover these may bo) and eudeavoiirod to do some practical good instead of getting up to those higher altitudes Mr C. speaks of, preaching dishonest doctrines and advocating the seizure of a man's property without compensating him thersfor (as Henry George and other " matchless heroes " of Mr C.'s have done), they would not havo been so likely to die unsung. The morality cm the plains of woe is of a better order than that which prevails up the ranges evidently. If to advocate and practice robbery makes a man a hero, then there are heroes in Mount Tiden Gaol to-day who should receiving the admiration and not the condemnation of their fellows. The two litx;, verses are addressed to the lady with the enlarged heart, and Mr C. informs her that the spirit of her song breathed sentiments Miat jiro partly understood. There can, how-

mei', btt mi dnuut as to Mr C.'s s»ntimenti. lln deplores that self should enumerato "its million victims slam," and is, if wn credit him with being honest in theso sontiiiiciitv, desirous of whacking nut his estate amongst those Who cannot value labour done That's done for labour's sake, but seek reward <>f some sort in rotnrn for such labour. Mr C. is discontented with th<! social system as at present ordered ; but he should take heart of grace. The Property Tax will bo abolished, and we are to have a Land Tax substituted. A Land Tax is said by thoso who have been up to the higher altitudes surveying tho woful plains to be the ono thing necessary to put the world in order. New Zealand is therefore saved, and all may yet bo well I Mr C. has had a strong objection to paying the Property Tax, preferring tn pay a special tax on his landed property. The effect of tho latter tax may bo to "burst up his big estate,'' hut in advocating such a tax, notwithstanding this contingency, Mr C. gives practical proof of his patriotism. In the last verso of his rhyme Mr C. sings : Invoke thy musi* and sing once more. But whatever the lady addressed may do, it is to be hoped Mr C. will spare us in future.—Yours, &.C., Liberal.