The Ballad of Peter Gray became known among all the workers and swaggers of the North Island. He was reputed to have been a contractor, awarded a large contract to clear a substantial amount of scrub, (apparently in the Wairarapa in the 1870s). He offered good contracts for workers and men flocked from miles around to work for him. But they had to buy their gear and food from him and they usually ended in debt.

Oh, leave me not, the maiden cried, To eat my heart in grief away. Let me depart, the youth replied, I must go south to Peter Gray. The parson said, My flock, farewell, I must be going without delay; And someone else can toll the bell, I'm going south to Peter Gray. The farmer left his untilled crop, He left uncut his crop of hay, His woman wept, he would not yield, But went down south to Peter Gray.

Cutting down a tree at Forty Mile Bush, near Eketahuna

Origins

The first two verses are quoted in Swagger Country by Jim Henderson.

There is a chapter on Peter Gray by John A Lee in his book Roughnecks, Rolling Stones & Rouseabouts where the third verse is printed. Lee states that

"A road rhymster wrote hundreds of Peter Gray verses, which were added to by others as his infamy was disclosed. From an old diary, I cull three verses."

It would be a most enlightening exercise to look for the diary in John A Lee's papers, which are apparently deposited in Auckland University Library.