found this one today ... published in four local newspapers one of them twice ... is this the first Eureka Poem Competition ? The Broadford Courier and Reedy Creek Times Friday 27 April 1894 p.5 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58881092 Oakleigh Leader Saturday 28 April 1894 p.3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66216171 The Caulfield and Elsternwick Leader Saturday 28 April 1894 p.3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66877690 Queenscliff Sentinel, Drysdale, Portarlington & Sorrento Advertiser Saturday 5 May 1894 p.2 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74273830 Queenscliff Sentinel, Drysdale, Portarlington & Sorrento Advertiser Saturday 4 August 1894 p.2 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74274365 EUREKA. (By the Rev. T. J. Hyder. Awarded first prize in the Hibernian Society competition for a poem on the subject). Men came with hearts of hope and pitched their tents Across the ranges of the trackless bush, Driving the silence northward to the plains. They wrought and wrested from the stubborn earth Her stores of gold, smiling at Want and Care. Then came stern faces frowning Freedom down Commissioners with arbitrary powers, And force to harry all the busy field With licence-hunting, till black blood was made, And men, treated like brutes, showed rage as brutes. The savage natures stirred the milder up, Revolting at the burden and the shame; For it was open scandal to the Crown That honest toil was forced to pay a fee Exorbitant for right to earn its bread. The law smote men upon the sweating face With whips of scorpions. Were they wretched slaves That brother men should shoot and fiercely hunt, And ride them down with armed horse and force ? The freeborn to produce a paper right To that eternal right of man, his right To liberty ! What freeborn man could stand And suffer sabre blow, and bayonet thrust Oppressing and coercing, without rage And brave revolt ? To be downtrodden, cursed, Pursued like beasts, and chained to trees and logs; - Confined at tyrants' will—these were the wrongs That made Eureka's bloody work, and tore The shackled liberty of manhood free. The diggers made no open breach, though men Had torn down kingdoms for injustice less. One day a boist'rous fellow in his cups Demanded drink, and furious words ensued At Bentley's, the Eureka Inn, ill-famed, And Bentley cleft the man between the eyes, Smiting him dead, himself not held to blame. That gross collusion, murder bribing law, Set fire to all the miners' honest hearts. Then out there poured ten thousand angry men, Who, at the Inn, broke through the long restraint, Wreckt the vile den and gave it to the flames, The murderer escaping for his life. Then came injustice grosser still. Three men Were seized and tried for rooting out the plague, And prisoned. Swift remonstrance rose To plead before stern Hotham ; but he drove The deputies away with unwise words. The diggers rose, and swore before Just God To strike for Freedom. Licences were burnt, And all Eureka burst into revolt. Men, desperate, took arms ; and to conceal The daily drill set up a frail stockade About that sacred acre on the hill, The Stockade of Eureka. A leader came, A man of Celtic blood and honest hand, And he, grown great for Freedom, never flinched The awful call of Duty, but in love Of glorious Liberty gave all his heart, He, standing up before insulted man, Thus nobly spoke ;—" I shall not shrink; I mean To do my duty as a man ; and once I pledge my hand, I will defile it not By treachery, nor by mean cowardice, Render that hand contemptible."* Then he Upreared the Southern Cross as Freedom's flag Full eighty feet; and, rising dominant, Swore those Five Hundred there beneath the flag To stand and strike for Freedom. He himself First reverent kneeling, swore in glowing words, By that most sacred Standard, to defend Their rights and liberties. Then thrilling rose The loud " Amen," five hundred hands upstretched Towards the Standard. But, like Gideon's host, They dwindled down, till but a third stood round Brave Lalor when the desperate fight began. That '54 December opened fierce With furnace heat; the night came on with storm And sheets of rain; offended Heaven poured The lightning down, and God's great power was seen In awful light. Upon the second day A demonstration in the silvery dawn In force came menacing the Bakery Hill; But like a threatening wave rolled back again. Next day, the third, at dawn, a sentry fired Upon the troops advancing : bugle-blasts Rang out, and on the soldiers rushed with cheers, Just twice the force within the mean Stockade, With threatening horsemen as a grim support. A furious fire began the deadly work. Men fell in sudden death, while Lalor urged The remnant into holes. The bayonet charge Was on them. Lalor fell with shattered arm, And loyal comrades hid him under slabs, While shouting, swearing, in the redcoats swept, Tearing the flimsy barrier down; and then They smote to death the few who fought, and drove The helpless rebels, overmatched, with blows Into their camp, and tore the Standard down. ...................... Lalor, a price upon his life escaped., A one-armed man, and sheltered from the storm. But men rose up throughout the land and forced The bitter curse to cease, and pardon came, And righteous laws proclaimed the Freedom found. He who had led the right against the might God set as legislator, crowning him With strength and infinite esteem, and made His wisdom power amidst the sons of men, Till he was lifted up to rule them all. Thus was Eureka lost and Freedom won. *Lalor's own words.
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