These are the lyrics most commonly heard in the late
20th century.
1. Spend it in the winter
Or die in the cold.
One a pecker, Tuapeka
Bright fine gold
Chorus.
Bright fine gold,
Bright fine
gold.
One a pecker,
Tuapeka,
Bright red
gold.
2. Some are sons of fortune,
And my man came to see
That the riches in the river
Are not for such as he.
3. I'm weary of Otago
I'm weary of the snow,
Let my man strike it rich
And then we will go. |
However at
least 4 more verses of this version of the song are in
existence. And many variants of "Bright Fine Gold" have also
been used as skipping chants. Most seem to have been derived
from the "Hot Cross Buns" song.
Hot cross buns
2500 B.C.
Hot cross buns had their origin in cakes with 'horns' which
the ancient Greeks offered to the Moon and other deities, Such
a cake was called a bous, and (it is said) never
grew mouldy. The 'cross' symbolized the four seasons and four
elements [fire, earth, air, water] of ongoing life at the
holiday of renewal [Ostara].
350 A.D.
For Christians, hot cross buns were sold during Lent in the
6 weeks before Easter as a reminder of the life-renewing
power of Christ's crucifixion.
1733
Hence the 18th century London street cry (Tuer
1885)
Hot
cross buns! Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
1842
With an additional verse added in the 19th century, this
cry became a nursery song, often accompanying a game.(Opie
1952) And in the 1840s, English migrants took
this chant to New Zealand,
Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
If
ye have no daughters,
give them to your sons.
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
Gold rush chant
1853.
In 1972, Fyfe reported an Australian goldfields rhyme
in Victoria dating back to the early 1850s. (Garland
2000)
"Tit
for tat, Ballarat,
bright fine gold"
As the Australian rushes waned, the miners moved on to try
their luck in New Zealand.And they would have brought this
jingle with them.
1862.
In New Zealand, in 1861, gold rushes broke out
almost simultaneously at Wangapeka, near Nelson, and in
the Tuapeka River in Otago. This prompted newspaperman
and political parodist Crosbie Ward to write next year,
in 1862, (Reeves 1883) that
Soon New Zealand Nurses will
sing their babies to sleep with the lullaby
Gold, gold, fine bright gold
Tuapeka,
Wangapeka,
bright red gold.
1874.
And indeed, 22 years later, Frederick Young
published this variation (Young
1874), with the remark that it was the
refrain of a New Zealand lullaby. (If this was the
refrain of a lullaby, then we can infer that the lullaby
had verses too .)
Gold, gold, gold -
bright fine gold
Wangapeka,
Tuapeka - gold, gold,
gold.
1880
Robert Fulton was born and raised at Ravensbourne
near Tuapeka. In his 1922 autobiography (Fulton
1922, page 90 ), he wrote:-
"as
a youngster, the writer well remembers the nurse's
lullabies to the smaller children:-
Bright
fine
gold, bright fine gold,
One-a-pecker,
Tuapeka, bright fine
gold."
When Fulton wrote about the children using the digger's
cry of "Joe" for anything unusual, he mentioned it was
"nigh on 40 years ago," thus giving the period in time
when he heard the nurse's lullaby.
1909
During Fyfe and Garland's
nationwide quest for Bright Fine Gold songs, one elderly
informant reported learning this in 1909. It is
identical to that recorded by Young 35 years earlier.
Gold,
gold, gold - bright fine gold
Wangapeka,
Tuapeka - gold, gold,
gold.
1952.
Eight decades later, schoolgirl Sharyn Staley and her
friends were chanting a similar verse in 1950s Wellington.
In March 2000, she wrote,
"I remember chanting it, I
think as a skipping rhyme, in the early 1950s,
definitely before 1956, so pre-dating the
publication of Ruth Park's book - and what we
chanted was the chorus used later by Neil
Colquhoun . . .
. .
. Bright fine gold, bright fine gold.
One a pecker, two-a
-pecker, bright fine gold."
Park's novel
1957.
And in 1957, Ruth
Park, a New Zealand-born novelist living in
Australia, published a historical novel One-a-pecker,
Two-a-pecker (Ref.
5) about the Otago gold rush of 1861.
Park's husband D'Arcy Niland was a poet and may have
written some of the verses in this novel.
Near the start of the novel, Park writes
...three or four children
played a game of hopscotch in a backwater beside
a shop. Currency (the heroine) bent down low to
hear what they were chanting, and she learned
for the first time this rhyme:
One-a-pecker,
two-a-pecker, bright fine
gold
Spend it in the summer and
you die in the cold.
About 170 pages and 2 years later in the story, a
young miner with yellow fluff all round his chin,
and some others, are caught by a snow-storm whilst
tending to a sick miner. To amuse themselves they
start singing
Then (the young
miner) sang that other Otago song,
since attributed to Jimmy the Blow,
but sounding too serious for him
One-a-pecker,
two-a-pecker,
bright fine gold
Spend it in
the summer and you die in the
cold.
It cannot light a lantern, or ever
ease a pain
And yet we go on searching tho' we
search in vain
We joined in
the chorus,singing soft and low...
"The snow's over" said my mother,
"...and we'll be on our way"
...The voices drew further ahead
One-a-pecker,
two-a-pecker,
send me
home
To my sweetheart waiting far
across the foam,
I'm weary of Otago, I'm weary of
the snow,
But let me make one lucky
strike, before I go
How far
they were ahead. I could just
hear the voices and that was
all.
One-a-pecker,
two-a-pecker,
years go
by,
All the gold I'll ever find is
in the sky
Some are sons of fortune, but
I have come to see
There's riches in the river,
but they're not for me.
|
| Color Code |
| Hot + Buns |
| Crosby
Wd |
| Ruth
Park |
|
Colquhoun's song
1965.
Seven years after Park's novel, folksong collector
Neil Colquhoun rearranged those verses, giving them a
woman's voice and added a tune developed from the
tunes of Hot Cross Buns
and "Single Girl. He
published this song in his book New Zealand
Folksongs, Songs of a Young Country (Ref.
6) .
Colquhoun gives Alistair Swan (?) as his source, and
Ruth Park's book as the earliest known published
version.
1. Spend it in
the winter
Or die in the cold.
One a pecker,
Tuapeka
Bright fine gold
Chorus.
Bright fine gold,
Bright fine gold.
One a pecker,
Tuapeka,
Bright red gold.
1. Some
are sons of fortune,
And my man
came to see
That the
riches in the river
Are
not for such
as he.
3. I'm weary
of Otago
I'm weary of the snow,
Let my man
strike it
rich
And then we'll go.
|
| Color Code |
| Hot + Buns |
| Crosby
Wd |
| Ruth
Park |
| Colquhoun |
|
1967
Two years later, Rona Bailey and Herbert Roth
published Shanties by the Way (Ref.
7) , a songbook which contained
some 20 ballads from pioneer days, all with extensive
references as to their sources. Their book also
contained this rhyme
Bright fine gold,
Bright fine gold.
One a pecker, Tuapeka,
Bright fine gold.
accompanied only by this brief comment
Otago goldfields
nursery rhyme
for
which no source was given, or indeed any other
details, although they thank co-workers, librarians
...and
hundreds of others ...who willingly assisted
us...
Their
version differs significantly from the version
collected by Frederick Young in 1874, but it is
almost identical to what children were chanting
in the 1950s
Extra verses
1986
Phil
Garland reverted to the original
"Wangapeka," and borrowed more verses from Ruth
Park's novel in the version of the song he
recorded on Songs of Old New Zealand
(Ref. 8).
4. It cannot light a
lantern
It cannot cure a pain
But still I'll go on searching
Although it's all in vain.
5. I came to make my
fortune
From far across the sea
But the riches in the river
Were not for such as me
Bright, fine gold. Bright, fine gold
Wangapeka, Tuapeka, bright, red gold.
And Richard
Mills also sings this verse he
composed.
6. I've watched my
children starving
I've seen my woman die -
Tuapeka you can keep your gold
Its price is much too high.
1991
Kath and Bill Worsfold (Colonial
Two-Step) got back to the original
spirit of the song by doing it as
child's play. They have recorded it with
a children's choir singing the chorus
smulaneously with the verses as a sort
of round.
Here are the chords they use. "What I
actually do," says Bill, "Is play only
the chorus over and over, while Kath
fits the verses over the top."
D G D D G D
Spend it in the winter Or die in the cold.
D G D G D
One a pecker, Tuapeka Bright fine gold
D G D D G D
Bright fine gold, Bright fine gold.
D G D G D
One a pecker, Tuapeka, Bright red gold
1999
In
1999, the noted traditional singer from
Maine USA, Gordon
Bok, recorded a version of Bright
Fine Gold (Ref.
9). containing this
verse.
7. Two little
children
Lying in bed -
Both of them hungry Lord
They can't raise up their head.
When first heard, this seems to come
from the Southern slave song,
Shortnin Bread,
Three lil'
chillun, lyin' in bed, two wuz
sick, and de other mos' dead . . .
However this verse is not Bok's
addition. He says he learnt this
version of Bright Fine Gold many
years ago from Sydney
folksinger-songwriter Phyl Lobl when
she toured through Maine in 1981.
Phyl writes, "I certainly had
Bright Fine Gold in my
repertoire at that time. I am also
prone to 'folk-processing' and
joining bits to suit the occasion,
and I do know those lines
Two little children. etc......
but whether I sang it in that form
I'm not absolutely certain, but if
that's how Gordon remembers it it is
likely to be so."
The verse comes from "When I Was
Single," which Peggy Seeger recorded
in 1955. (It was re-released in 1992
as a CD "The
Folkways Years". A study of
this song shows us how Colquhoun's
tune originated.
You can do this on the next web
page...
2. Origins of its Music
Bright Fine Gold on record
1968 The Song-spinners,
Songs of the Gold Diggers
(Kiwi)
1960s Gary & Everill Muir,
Folk Songs-2 EP S/EA
162 (Kiwi )
1960s Don Fulton, son of Robert
V Fulton 45 (in possession
of Phil Garland)
1971 Phil Garland, Down
a Country Road (Kiwi)
1972 Phil Garland, Song
of a Young Country
compilation LP (Kiwi Pacific)
1970s Kevin Scully, Alone
in the Hills 45 (Robbins)
1980 Graham Wilson, Paydirt
(LP)
1983 Gerry Hallom, A Run
a Minute (Fellside 36,
England )
1985 Arthur Toms, Trypots,
Cradles and Gutboards
(Radio NZ)
1987 Pioneer Pog 'n' Scroggin
Bush Band, Pognorhythyms
(LP)
1986 Phil
Garland, Songs of
Old New Zealand
(Kiwi-Pacific )
1991 Colonial
Two-Step, Colonial
Heritage Songs cass.
(Gumdiggers)
1991 When the Cat's Been Spayed,
Down the Hall... CD
(Kiwi-Pacific)
1999 Gordon
Bok, In the Kind
Land CD (Timberhead Camden,
Maine USA,)
References
Ref 1.
Andrew Tuer, Old London
Street Cries, London 1885
(1978): 97
says "The cry 'One-a-penny,
two-a-penny, hot cross BUNS!' - now.
. . never heard from the sellers on
Good Friday - is still part of a
children's game.
Ref 2.
Iona & Peter Opie, Oxford
Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes,
Oxford 1952: 107
Ref 3.
Quoted by W. Pember Reeves (ed.).
Canterbury Rhymes
Christchurch [1862] 1883: 129
Reeves wrote that... "In 1862,
when gold was the staple of
speculation, Mr Crosbie Ward
declared that soon New Zealand
Nurses would sing their babies to
sleep with the lullaby 'Gold,
gold'..."
Crosbie Ward was, in 1862, the
part-owner of The
Lyttleton Times, and
parodist of Nursery
Rhymes for Political Babies.
Ref 4.
Frederick Curling Young, New
Zealand, Past, Present and
Future, London 1874: 14,
a paper presented to the
Royal Colonial Institute.
Ref 5.
Ruth
Park was born in Auckland,
New Zealand in 1922. After moving
to Australia in 1942 she married
the writer D'Arcy Niland. After
their marriage the Nilands
travelled through the outback of
Australia for a time before
settling in Surry Hills in Sydney
where they earned a living writing
full-time. After Niland died in
1967, Ruth Park visited London
before moving to Norfolk Island
from 1973 to 1985.
Her most famous books are the
trilogy of Missus, The Harp in the
South and Poor Man's Orange, along
with Swords and Crowns and Rings
which won the Miles Franklin Award
in 1977.
One-a-Pecker, Two-a-Pecker (1957),
was also published in the USA as
The Frost and the Fire (1958)
Ref
6.
Neil Colquhoun, Song
of a Young Country, New Zealand
Folksongs, AH & AW Reed
Ltd 1972 :29. The song can be
heard on a recording of the same
name which was released at about
the same time.
Ref
7.
Shanties by the Way
a selection of New Zealand Popular
Songs collected and edited by Rona
Bailey and Herbert Roth with
musical arrangements by Neil
Colquhoun. Whitcombe and Tombs
Limited 1967 (I borrowed my copy
on library interloan. JA)
Garland
1986
Phil Garland, Songs
of Old New Zealand/Hunger in the
Air (different titles
printed on cover and cassette
sticker) Kiwi
Pacific (TC LRF-191) 1986.
Bok
1999
Gordon
Bok, In the Kind
Land CD (Timberhead Camden,
Maine USA, 1999)
Fulton 1922
Robert V. Fulton, MD
Medical Practice in Otago &
Southland in The Early Days
published in Dunedin, 1922
Top
- Home
Information collected by John
Archer
and first published on the web,
Mar 8, 2000
Revised May 25, 2000
|