| NEW ZEALAND FOLK*SONG |
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Regarding the research done by Frank and myself, I can only take some of the credit...most of it goes to Frank (60%) I was an assistant in all this. We did most of the work in 1971 - 72.I'm forwarding this info to you as I believe much of Frank's research work over the years was destroyed after his recent passing and I believe it should be made available to anyone who's interested...certainly before it's too late or similar problems beset us.
Where to begin with Bright Fine Gold details....? During the 1970s Frank Fyfe and I did a lot of research together into various N.Z. songs, so here is some of what we uncovered along the way.
Philip Garland, Nov 2000
One of Frank's first informants was Rona Bailey- she obviously seemed like a good person to start with, but couldn't remember where she got the BFG verse from. However her co-researcher Bert Roth did, he said it came from the book"Medical Practice in Otago & Southland in The Early Days" by Robert V Fulton, MD. published Dunedin 1922 ( page 90 )Frank checked it out and there it was. Fulton was born and raised at Ravensbourne, a suburb of Dunedin and about 100 km from Tuapeka, and says:--
"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 talking about the children using the digger's cry of "Joe" for anything unusual, he mentions this was nigh on 40 years ago -which would place the nursery rhyme use of 'Bright Fine Gold' around 1880. Incidentally the cry of Joe was very common on the Australian goldfields during the 1850s and would most likely have travelled here with the miners in the 1860s.
During the 1960s folk revival here in N.Z. I met up with a Don Fulton, who turned out to be son of Robert V Fulton. Don was a medical Student at Otago Uni and a member of the folk club - Don actually recorded a 45 rpm record of 'Bright Fine Gold.' I have a copy of this 45 tucked away in my archives.
Frank and I took out adverts in various newspapers at this time and got more than a few replies.
Dunedin 1945
One came from Ray Ritchie in Dunedin who remembered singing it in about 1945. It reads as follows:--"Bright fine gold, bright fine gold,This version was sung to "Three Blind Mice"
What a peck of Tuapeka, bright fine gold."Incidentally I discovered that the locals in Central Otago pronounce Tuapeka as Chupeeka which really makes it difficult to fit into the song.
Royal Oak 1951
We also obtained many versions of the skipping rhyme from around the country. One from Royal Oak School in Auckland around 1951-54. Our informant Mrs L McConchie reckoned it had been in the school for at least ten years or more, in use as a long rope skipping rhyme and goes like this:--One piece for the master, this will soon be sold,
One a pecker, two a pecker, bright fine gold.One piece for the mistress, for her hands to hold,
One a pecker, two a pecker etc...One piece for the serving girl, for her hips so bold,
One a pecker, two a pecker etc...One piece for old Crabby, now the tale is told,
One a pecker, two a pecker etc....Chorus:- bright fine gold, bright fine gold,
One a pecker, two a pecker, bright fine gold.I recall Frank Fyfe actually performing this skipping rhyme, complete with actions, on stage at a couple of folk clubs, using it as part of his introduction to singing the song. Incidentally Frank's children also had fond memories of him leading them in singing this song when travelling on long car journeys around the country.
This 1950s Auckland version was sung to the tune of "Hot Cross Buns" instead of "Three Blind Mice" of the Dunedin version from 1945. However both these tunes are quite similar really...
The "Crabby" mentioned in the Auckland version apparently refers to the school head mistress.
Alexandra 1941
We also heard from a John Adams in Alexandra, who remembered the chorus from school circa 1941.Goldfields 1910
And we also heard from the goldfields author F.W.G. Miller with memories from his childhood days, while his sister Constance; remembered it being used as a skipping rhyme around 1910.1909
Another version came to light circa 1909 which could be related to Crosbie Ward's version / variant:--"Gold, gold, gold, bright fine gold,
Wangapeka, Tuapeka, Gold, gold, gold."Maungapeka
A further oral variant came to light substituting "Maungapeka" for Wangapeka etc.....someone's bad memory at work here, but typical of folk process..
Now here comes the most interesting piece of information of all...Frank managed to contact Ruth Park - Ruth collected her first verse, in part only, from Francois St Omer of Queenstown in 1952 -- he remembered only a few words from his boyhood days in the 1880s.
"One a pecker, two a pecker, bright fine gold,
You find.............and lose it when you're cold,
Dum dee dum........ (something about a candle)
Dum dum de dumdy..........Fine bright gold."
"...he remembered only a few words from his boyhood days in the 1880s"
Ruth wrote all the verses to the song apart from the
"Some are sons of fortune, but I have come to see"
verse which was apparently written by her husband Darcy Niland.The most important thing to come out of all this is the song "Bright Fine Gold" as portrayed in her book "One-a-Pecker, Two-a-Pecker" is COPYRIGHT to Ruth Park, and she did actually consider taking legal action against whoever was the first to call it traditional. So take care how you credit this song in future. I'm always very careful about how I credit authorship of the song. Although the people have taken ownership of BFG It is definitely not trad - but an interesting story indeed. It's very like tracking the birth of a folk song.
Neil Colquhoun credits an Alastair Swan in Levin with giving him the song. Frank tried tracking him down, but the Swan family in Levin had no idea what he was on about. Further research led him to an Alasdair Swan inPalmerston North...however he didn't know anything about the song.But this Alasdair Swan was a lad at school in Levin around 1956 where Neil Colquhoun was music teacher at the time. Alasdair was a nephew of Bill Swan who was musical. Frank contacted Neil about his trouble and got a description of the Swan informant and this fitted Bill Swan to a tee. Neil then suggested he'd probably got the names mixed up, which does seem to be the case.
Frank now decided in his wisdom that the skipping rhyme was not really related to Crosbie Ward's verse in any way and that the Ward version was likely descended from an Australian goldfields rhyme in Victoria, which went:--"Tit for tat, Ballarat, bright fine gold"This would have originated early 1850s, probably 1853 or thereabouts - Frank never quite managed to track this down with any finality to prove his theory.
"Bright red gold...." The quartz found in the Wangapeka Valley area had a reddish tinge to it - hence the reference in the last line of the original1862 chorus by Crosbie Ward.
"Two little children, lying in bed,seems to have had wide currency in Australia, most likely courtesy of Phyl Lobl, but I can't offer any explanation for this. My second wife, who was Australian, sang this verse to me the first time she heard me sing "Bright Fine Gold" she'd spent considerable time in Tasmania, Alice Springs and Perth, but didn't know where she'd learned it. I do however suspect that it's from the Phyl Lobl version.
Both of them so hungry Lord,
They can't raise up their heads"
The chants of one-a-penny, one-a-pecker, one-a-pepper and one-potato all seem to be related.There are two Australian variants recorded in Cinderella dressed in Yella (1978)
One-a-pepperAnd in "The Games We Played," Eve Parry writes of her 1930s childhood in Manchester, England.
Two-a-pepper
(Sydney 1930)One-a-penny, two-a-penny, three-a-penny, four.
Five-a-penny, six-a-penny, kick her out the door.
(Melbourne 1973)Skipping and ball games were very popular, and the rhymes which accompanied these were varied. The following verses were all used as "Dips". When it was necessary to choose a particular child to be "on", all would stand round in a circle. One child would be in the centre and repeating the rhyme, would touch each child on the chest after every syllable. On the last syllable, the child who was touched was "on". The following are examples.We also used "Salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper" at Mangamahu School, NZ, in the 1940s. It was used at the end of other chants when one of us was jumping a long rope swung by two others. "Pepper" was the signal for the rope to be swung at double speed."One potato, two potato, three potato, four.
Five potato, six potato, seven potato, more."(She gives several other examples. Then...)
..."Salt, mustard, vinegar, pepper", was a skipping rhyme.
(John Archer)
Information edited by John Archer
and first published on the web, Nov 4, 2000