It is gratifying to find that in a land like this, where little encouragement has been offered to art, and its companion poetry, a patron and friend to these should arise in its Governor. Being himself a composer of no mean order, he is naturally attracted towards all that is beautiful and excellent in the realm of art or song; and with this fact before us, may we not hail it as an omen that a healthy feeling in favour of what has an elevating and ennobling tendency will now set in, and encouragement given to genius be more promising than heretofore! Sir William Robinson's best known composition here is entitled "Unfurl the Flag." From the time this song was first sung, and its accompaniment played in the Town Hall (on the day His Excellency was sworn in), it has been a favourite in many households, and invariably given by vocalists in every town where demonstrations in his honour are made.
UNFURL THE FLAG.
(Words by Mr. Francis Hart.)
Australia's sons, your flag unfold,
And proudly wave the banner high,
That ev'ry nation may behold
Our glorious standard in the sky.
CHORUS.
Unfurl the flag that all may see
Our proudest boast is liberty.
Rejoice in fruitful, teeming soil.
In fleecy flocks and noble kine;
Rejoice in fruits of manly toil,
For honest labour is divine.
Unfurl the flag, etc.
Rejoice in treasures 'neath the earth,
In precious gold, in store profuse;
Grant us to know its noblest worth.
Its object and its fitting use.
Unfurl the flag, etc.
