The Only Edition Printed in Australia
E.W. COLE has been appointed Sole Distributor of A.H. Massina & Co.'s
Complete Copyright Edition of
Gordon's Poems
THEY ARE NOW ISSUED IN TWO STYLES—
1. Crown 8vo. (size 7½ in. × 5½ in.), large type, with "Roll of the Kettledrum," illustrated, and Preface by Marcus Clarke
CLOTH Binding, 3/6; also extra gilt cover, gilt edges, 5/-
2. Pocket Edition (size 5½ in. × 4½ in.)
CLOTH Cover, 2/6.
FOREWORD.
There has been so much adulation lately of Australia, Australian institutions, and the Australian people by writers with axes to grind and English politicians with party ends to serve that the people of the Commonwealth have come to believe that they are the salt of the earth, and that their country is the earth. Personally, I am impatient of such credulity, and I think it is time somebody called upon the self-satisfied Australians to show cause why a little more humility and a little less arrogance were not more seemly. With a view to restoring an apparently lost sense of proportion to the press and public of the country, I have written the following pages. If in telling the truth I shame the Australian this book will achieve its object. Should a howl of indignation be provoked, then will the condition of affairs be proved worse than my pen has power to depict, and nothing will be left but to declare Australia past redemption. This is the case for the prosecution.
VALERIE DESMOND.