Please note that this edition has a scratch across the front of the dust jacket and some shelf wear.

This entertaining collection of ballads in the old-time style will appeal to anyone with an interest in New Zealand folklore. Gold-diggers, swaggies, shearers, drovers, rouseabouts and sailors crowd the pages, bringing the past to life. Frisco Larry, Whip Crack Billy and the legendary Aboriginal buck-jumping champion, Queensland Harry, compete for our attention with Mouth-organ Jack and the shady antics of Jimmy the Rat and Billy the Dog. Joe Charles has long had a firm sense of mission - a desire to record New Zealand's colourful folk-past in verse while there were still old-timers with anecdotes to tell. This is the history of the obscure people who helped build a nation - history which is gathered in bar-rooms and shearing sheds and not gleaned from books. From the Northland gumfields to the gold rushes in the valley of the Clutha, there was as much drama, excitement and tragedy in New Zealand as in any Wild West novel...