Mr. Mauger declaims about the past services which he has rendered to Protection. What have past services to count in a time like this, when he is leagued with all the forces which have been most hostile to Protection in the past, and when, under party pressure, he is engaged in setting up Freetrade candidates to oust good Protectionists? - Melbourne AGE.

"It's the very fust time in me life
   That I've ever bin 'ad up 'ere!"
The prisoner cried. "If you think I've lied
   You kin look at me parst career.
I never 'ave bin on the crook,
   An' I never done anythink wrong;
Tho' I owns I wus caught with a reel bad lot,
   An' the case fer the Crown is strong.


"I allus 'ave bin on the square,
   An' I never palled up with crooks;
I kep' honest an' good as a citizen should,
   As you easy kin tell be me looks.
But these fellers kep' hangin' around
   An' whisperin' things in me ear;
So I jes' went along, but I never meant wrong,
   W'ich is plain from me parst career.


"They sed as they'd all reformed,
   An' they tole me they'd done their dash  
At the criminal game; an' they said the same
   Guv a rotten return in cash.
An' I swears I'm an innocent man,
   Though the fact I will never dispute
That the p'leece took me in the conpanee
   Of fellers of ill-repute.


"I owns we wus hangin' around
   With a jemmy or two in our sleeves,
In a lone, dark lane.  But I tell yer again -
   An' I hope as the Court believes -
I never meant anythink wrong,
   An' I never done anythink crook
An' I sees right 'ere that me parst career
   Is as plain as an open book.


"I've belonged to a temperance league,
   An' tort in a Sund'y school too;
An' it's reel 'ard cheese if sich facts as these
   Don't have any weight with you.
I consorted with these coves 'ere
   To 'elp 'em along if I could;
Fer they ses, 'You're the man to assist in our plan
   Fer penmotin' the general good.'


"So they gimme a jemmy an' mask,
   An' I follered 'em inter the lane,
An' when I wus copped the Johns never stopped
   To gimme the time to ixplain.
Fer I thort it wus all on the square,
   An' I swears to the Bench right 'ere
That I never bin once in the - Wot? Six munce?
   Bit look at me parst career!"

"Den"
The Bulletin, 17 March 1910, p16