Excerpt from Ballads and Poems: From the Pacific In publishing an edition of "Ballads and Poems" with my name, I think it may not be out of place to add a few lines regarding the signatures under which I have written; more as an explanation to my personal friends than as a matter of much interest to the general reader. The first poems of mine which had the honour of being printed, appeared over the letters F. S. C. in the columns of the Lyttelton Times - a journal of high standing, published in Canterbury, New Zealand. I was very young, both in years and authorship in those days; and I need not now conceal that I was much gratified at the favourable reception accorded to my pieces by the readers and by the editor of that journal. For some years after leaving Canterbury, an active and adventurous life allowed me little time or opportunity to write much for the public. But I still continued to cultivate in my own humble fashion, "The light that never was on sea or land, The consecration, and the Poet's dream." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.