Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Friday 13 August 1852, page 3


ORIGINAL POETRY.

ODE TO THE DEAD OF GUNDAGAI.

SLEEP dead, who died at Gundagai !

Upon that dreadful, heavy night, What then avail'd the piercing cry, Which rose above the waters' might !

Ah what avail'd thee ? thine the fate, By flat seal'd - He will'd thy doom ;

In joy, in youth, in health elate,

Unwarn'd - ye met a watery tomb.

Unwarn'd, - ere roar'd the raging wave,

Which broke in thunder, o'er the plain, Ye little reek'd - the waters rave,

That mimick'd ocean's mighty main, Would soon engulph thee in its course,

" Unshrined, uncoffin'd, unanneal'd," That sin, repentance, and remorse,

Too soon to death, would be reveal'd.

Ah ! what suspense thy bosom swell'd, As night set in upon that scene,

The last thy dying eyes beheld, - A living agonising dream - And blanch'd with fear, with dreadful thought,

As rose the turbid, raging flood ;

An age of pain those moments brought,

Chilling to very ice thy blood.

And vain the prayer, that ask'd of Him,

To spare thee, but a little while - Ye pray'd, till even hope grew dim,

Till even hope forgot its smile.

As death with crushing jaws drew near.

Say mothers from thy seigy graves ! How clung thee, to thy children dear

When dragg'd beneath those snow cold waves ? Were many link'd. in wild embrace?

In love - that death could not divide, And ending thus, their earthly race,

The loved, and loving, side by side Adown the waters headlong course,

Swept thy frail bodies, here and there ; And carrying, in its madden'd force

What'er its mighty tide could bear. Ye sleep, thou dead of Gundagai !

In slimy holes, and river beds ;

The manes of many there will lie,

In haunts where seldom mankind trends. There, festering in the summer heat,

While bleaching winters bleach thy bones, The little birds shall oft repeat

Thy fate, in music's measured tones.

All living sympathise with thee ;

And Nature seems, still on to mourn ; The very leaves on every tree,

Ere falling - by the rude blast torn - At silent eve, a requiem sing,

And e'en the rocks, in listening weep. But what relief can pity bring ?

What wake thee from thy clammy sleep ? The pale cold moon, with dewy face,

Her glistening tears will o'er thee shed ;

And stars which gleam in boundless space,

Shine on those lone, unburied dead.

But brightest of all lights which shine,

The lights that light th' eternal shore,

Oh may their gleam, and grace, be thine, And Heaven thy lot for evermore.

THETA.

Goulburn, August 9.

THE GOLD QUESTION CONSIDERED. --- We cannot shut our eyes to the certainty of a serious amount of influence being exercised upon monetary and financial affairs by a long continuance of the increased supplies of gold. We concede all that can fairly be demanded in the way of increased supply to meet the wants of the new commerce springing up in the Pacific and adjacent seas to allow of the in-creased coinage which the New States in North America and the growing population of our own colonies require --- to make up for the ex-tending use of gold and silver in articles of luxury which increasing wealth and improving arts must occasion--- to, restore the losses from hoarding, from shipwreck, from wear and tear of coin, and from the thousand other causes of waste--- and to admit of the large yearly storing of coin for the purposes of emigration : all that

can fairly be demanded to meet these and other exigencies we admit ; and yet there will still, at the present rate of yield, be a large annual surplus which must gradually cheapen

gold in the market. Mr. M'Culloch disposes of the annual supply of the metals--- estimated at nine millions before the recent discoveriesin the following manner :----

Consumption in the arts in

Europe and America .............. £4,840,000 Exportation to Australia and

India ....................................... 2,600,000

Waste of coin (at 1 per cent.) ......1,600,000

Making together ... ..................£9,040,000 which was very neatly the supposed yield of all known mines when Mr. M'Culloch's esti-mate was made. If we add a half to all these items --- a very liberal allowance --- we shall have a round sum of thirteen and a half mil-

lions sterling of gold and silver together, as

sufficient to produce all the wants of increasing use in the arts, waste in coinage, extending

commerce, colonial settlement.--- State extension,

and Eastern exportation. But the actual pro-

duce for 1851 is estimated at .... £30,000,000 and if we deduct........................ 13,000,000

there remains a balance of (sic) £16,500,000 ---- irrespective of all increase which is likely to be caused by the extension of the Australian gold field. It is clear that the conclusion is premature, that no alteration is to be looked for in the relative market value of the two precious metals. Only a greatly increased

activity and produce in the silver mines can prevent it.--- From Blackwood.