OTAGO
(Graeme Miles)

I worked with Sam, I knew him well
He was handy with a shovel
Never ever known to shirk his work,
Seldom out of trouble.
And when the gaffer called him names
They would nigh on come to blows
But now old Sam's packed up and gone
Away to Otago

He'd laugh away the greyest day
He found everything quite funny
He'd give away most of his pay
Always out of money
He'd drag his woodbine and sup his ale
With no thoughts about tomorrow
But now old Sam's packed up and gone
Away to Otago

He told me that he'd been to sea,
Some years ago when younger
New Zealand was the place for him,
When on the shore he'd wander
And through the islands up and down
He would ramble he would roam
Always said that he'd return
Someday to Otago

A letter I received from him
The only one he wrote me
Said the beer out here is no great guns,
But the climate really suits me.
I've met a lass of Maori blood,
She'll be good for me, I know
So I guess I'll wed and settle down
Somewhere in Otago.

Now winter time is setting in
And the wind blows roaring bitter
And grey as slate the sky above
Never known such rough weather
I often think of Sam the Lad
Far from the sleet and snow
I'll bet he's lying in the sun
Somewhere in Otago

Now should I live a hundred years
I'll not forget old Sammy
There never was a kinder man
Nor one half so happy
I wonder what became of him
I suppose I'll never know
But I bet he's still the same old Sam
And he's somewhere in Otago - Yes
He's somewhere in Otago

I got these words from a Cambridge singer, Vic Blake,
whose comment on the song is as follows:

To the best of my recollections this song is
something like forty-five verses long (and
took Graeme seven years to write).
This is the edited version according to Martin
Wyndham-Reid.

AndyG