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We read in the press that Lord Northcote is here / To take up Lord Tennyson's mission. / 'Tis pleasant to find they have sent us a Peer, / And a man of exalted position. / It's his business to see that the Radical horde / From loyalty's path does not swerve us; / But his tastes, and the task, don't seem quite in accord / For they say that His Lordship is nervous.
Does he think that wild animals walk in the street, / Where the wary marsupial is hopping? / Does he think that the snake and the platypus meet / And "bail up" the folk who go shopping? / And that boomerangs fly round the scared passer-by / Who has come all this way to observe us. / While the blackfellow launches a spear at his eye? / -- No wonder His Lordship is nervous.
Does he think that with callers he'll be overtasked, / From a baronet down to a barber? / Does he dream of the number of times he'll be asked / "What he thinks of our Beautiful Harbour? " / Does he sadly reflect on the sorrows that ding / Round his task? (From such sorrows preserve us! ) / He must hear John See speak and O'Sullivan sing, / -- It's enough to make any man nervous.
Does he think he'll be waked in the dead of the night / From Melbourne to go willy-nilly, / To live at the Federal Capital site / At Tumut or Wagra-go-billy? / Well, the Melbournites may let the Capital go / (Here we wink with one eye, please observe us! ) / But not in a hurry! By no means! Oh, no! / He has not the least need to be nervous!
The Evening News, 26 January 1904