Mark's comments from the Trove link

mgregory 5 Jun 2013 at 15:41

This is almost certainly the earliest printed version of the iconic bush song Click go the shears, a song whose provenance has been in dispute for many years. Now we have proof it was around in 1891, the year of the famous shearers' strike.


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mgregory 6 Jun 2013 at 10:44

Bell Belled

probably a miss reading of the copper plate handwriting of the original letter sent to the newspaper by C. C. from Eynesbury on 20 November 1891

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mgregory 6 Jun 2013 at 10:52

His eyes they were fixed on a green painted keg,
Saying " I will lower your contents, before I move a peg."
His eyes are on the keg, and are now lowering fast ;
He works hard, he dies hard, and goes to heaven at last


65 years later In 1946 in Percy Jones' article on Australian Folk Songs, the second recorded publishing of the song the last verse has undergone some modification, losing its piousness in the bush, and the last verse becomes:

There we leave him standing, shouting for all hands
While all around him every "shouter" stands
His eyes are on the cask, which now is lowering fast
He works hard, he drinks hard , and goes to hell at last

A good indication that the song had entered the oral tradition

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good detective work, Mark.