Songs with Political Commentary

Image Credit: The first parliament of Botany Bay in high debate, 1786 | National Library of Australia

William Bowman

William Bowman was elected to the NSW Legislative Assembly at first parliamentary elections in the colony in 1843. These elections were contentious and accompanied by protests, riots and violence (one man was killed). Bowman lived in the cottage called ‘Toxana’ in Richmond when first elected to NSW Parliament. Incidentally, Toxana appears to still be standing and is now a ‘business centre’. According to Alfred Smith:

This was the first election in the colony and it was for the Cumberland Borough – Richmond, Windsor, Penrith, Liverpool and Campbelltown. It was a ‘tight go’. For he only won the seat by one vote. Old Bill McAlpine rode night and day from ‘Cockfighter’…to give William Bowman his vote. And it was always reckoned that was the vote that put Bowman in. I will give you a bit of the song about that election. It ran as follows:

Mr Bowman went to Campbelltown

He didn’t mean to stay

He got so many votes

He couldn’t stay away

Fitzgerald went to Campbelltown

He only got one vote

He had to ride away

Hooray for Mr Bowman

Sources

Peter Cochrane, Colonial Ambition: foundations of Australian democracy (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2006)

Alfred Smith, Some Ups and Downs of an Old Richmondite (Penrith: Nepean Family History Society Inc., 1991)

Tea-Tax Rhymes

Empire was a liberal, anti-squatter newspaper founded and edited by Henry Parkes. The paper ran from 1850-1875, with Parkes running it until 1858. In 1856, the NSW Legislative Assembly ran its first elections since NSW had become a self-governing colony. During September and October of 1855, the paper ran a series of doggerel poems about the candidates.

These were written poems, and we have no evidence of them having been sung. However, they were called ‘songs’; it is not hard to imagine a journalist at the Empire or a sympathetic liberal singing or reciting them at the pub. In the example below, for instance, the poem is about George Allen, who was an alderman and owner of three houses and one large estate in Sydney and was elected in 1856.

SONGS OF THE NOMINEES--No. I.

GEORGE ALLEN'S SONG.

I'll tax the gin, I'll tax the rum,

I'll tax the brandy, too;

I'll raise the nobbler to a sum

I'm sure will sober you.

I'll teach you all sobriety,

Give all the Temp'rance touch;

I'll tax the sugar and the tea,

Or still you'd drink too much.

I'll tax the brandy, rum, and gin,

I'll tax that nasty wine;

I'll wean the people from their sin,

And so I'll cleanse the swine.

Ay! lest you fall to other vice,

And walk not soberly,

If tea be at too low a price,

I'll double th' tax on tea.

I'll tax your drinks, from rum to tea,

And yet, dear souls! I hope,

If it SIR WILLIAM'S pleasure be,

To tax your salt and soap.

I tried to raise the tax on beer,

And everything from malt;

And if taxed tea is not too dear,

Why not a tax on salt?

I'll tax the brandy, gin, and rum,

I'll tax the old man's snuff,

I'll tax the baby's sugar-plum,

I'll tax you all enough.

Whate'er SIR WILLIAM asks of me,

To serve the State, I'll do,--

An independent nominee--

The boy for taxing you!

Sources

'Songs of the Nominees - No. 1. George Allens' Song', Empire, 25 September 1855, p. 4.