Poem by Andrew Barton Paterson

Who is Kator Anyhow?

Why, oh why was Kater lifted 
From the darkness, where he drifted 
All unknown, and raised to honour, 
Side by side with Dick O’connor, 
In the Council, free from row? 
Who is Kater, anyhow? 
Did he lend our armies rally, 
Like the recent Billy Dalley? 
Did he lend a Premier money, 
Like -- (No libels here, my sonny. -- Ed. B.) 
Was he, like John Davies, found 
Very useful underground? 

Not at all! his claim to glory 
Rests on quite another story. 
All obscure he might have tarried, 
But he managed to get married -- 
And (to cut the matter shorter) 
Married William Forster’s daughter. 

So, when Henry Edward Kater 
Goes to answer his creator, 
Will the angel at the wicket 
Say, on reading Kater’s ticket -- 
”Enter! for you’re no impostor, 
Son-in-law of Billy Forster!”

1. A Grain of Desert Sand
2. That Half-Crown Sweep
3. Under the Shadow of Kiley’s Hill
4. White Cockatoos
5. Song of the Artesian Water

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