Fraser Bruce 

FAREWELL TO THE GOLD (Paul Metzers/ Topic Records Music Ltd.)

Shotover river your gold it is waning
And its years since the colour I’ve seen
It’s no use complaining and lady luck blaming
I’ll pack up and I’ll make the break clean

It’s nearly two years since I left my old mother
For adventure and gold by the pound
And with Jimmy the prospector, He was another
To the hills of Otago we were bound

Well we worked the Cardrona dry valley all over
Old Jimmy Williams and me
They were panning good dust on the winding Shotover
So we headed down there just to see

Well we sluiced and we cradled for day after day
Making hardly enough to get by
Then a terrible flood swept old Jimmy away
During six stormy days in July

Chorus

Farewell to the gold that never I found
Goodbye to the nuggets that somewhere abound
For its only when dreaming that I see you gleaming
Down in the dark deep underground