Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 241a

Transcript

was one of the best in the gully. And after being bled by the Victoria vampires, and facing the cold and hardships of a winter in the back country down South, almost eighteen months to a day, saw the pair landed in their old Home with a couple of thousand a piece, no more, as they averred, to roam. Perhaps since that they have blossomed into Head Centres, or Invincibles. Who knows? May be, into Members of Parliament. But I don’t believe either of them have been hanged. But this is touchy ground.

Another fine old sport who sailed around Gabriel’s in those days – golly – twenty two years ago, was Major Croker. He had been a settler for some time on Tokomariro Plain and liking to do old friends a turn, they dubbed him Commissioner. He was the Head bottle washer in that locality. His was the hand that dispensed the licence to dole out drops of nectar. So they thought it – at a shilling a nip. He was succeeded by a worthy person Mr Cheetham Strode, a regular old Tite Barnacle, like his chum W.J.W. &c Hamilton, who after being fed by a liberal country for the best part of his life now find themselves provided for by the same liberal country up to the day of their death. Curious logic these pensions. You keep a man well paid, make him your master, sheltered from all the storms and risks and competition of colonial life, and after that you – give him a pension. Strikes me there’s room for discussion here. Were they even only grateful? But they look upon it as a due. Burst up pensions. Where’s Graham Berry. Yes. Well, Mr Strode had for an assistant, or a Joint Commissioner, one Capt. Baldwin, another of the same sort. But, somehow, don’t think he managed to do the limpet properly. At all events, although he was nothing else but the impersonation of a Tite Barnacle and an Irish one at that, a cold country has not seen fit to pension him. It is true Julius for the sake of old times sent him stumbling round the Parish for insurance touting, or post office agent. He’s nobody.