Another one of me poems

DEVILS ADVOCATE

You say that you're for conservation
well alright thats fine.
You say dont cut our native trees
just fell the humble pine.
"Leave the Kauri proud to stand,"
I hear you cry & moan.
I hear your cry my Greeny friend,
just leave our trees alone.
I've listened now for year on year,
I'm tired dont you see.
I've heard your bloody arguments,
you've told them all to me.
Just let me put to you some facts
I think that you should know'
My Dad has worked the bush for years
with body bent & bowed.
A wife he had & two small kids
support them how you can.
Jobs back then weren't easy come
no dole queues close at hand.
You had to work or you dont eat,
a simple fact of life.
No time for man to make a stand
on anything but life.
You're not a fool, but formal school
at twelve years had to end.
A job you see it had to be
at any cost my friend.
So dont bleat on how its all gone
and nothing left for you,
while sitting in your Lockwood home
admiring all the view.
Your farm just wouldnt be around
if not for men like Dad.
You're not fit, you little shit
to lick the boots he never had.

I wrote this poem some years ago when a mining company wanted to reopen an old mine about 5 km up the valley we were living in. The only intrusion into the landscape would have been a 2 metre square shaft driven into the hillside to connect with the old workings. There is that much gold in there that the drill bits used on the test holes were coming up clogged solid with pure gold. From the shaft, an overhead cable way was going to take the ore for around 1 km down to an existing roadway. This roadway , incidentally was going to be upgraded & sealed, thus providing better access to some beautiful parts of the Coromandel Forest Park, including a stunning grove of mature Kauri trees. Two truckloads of ore a day would be taken to a processing site on the Hauraki Plains. The area concerned was basically first stage regrowth from logging at the turn of the century, mainly gorse, bracken & ti tree, as such not an area of virgin bush worth preserving at all costs. With all this, jobs would have been created for locals as well. All in all, a win win situation.

But no. Local greenys who didnt even bloody well LIVE in the valley posed that many objections to the scheme that it was shelved. I could give you more examples of mindless unthinking opposition to beneficial projects being canned for similar reasons, (i.e. Whangamata marina,) but dont get me started. Anyway, this is me, this is how I feel about some things, no apologies offered. I believe we have a magnificent country & have no wish to see it raped as other countries have been. Having said that, I believe that careful management of natural resources can provide income & prosperity at all levels.