Publication
This parody, by an unidentified author, was originally published in The Spike, The Victoria College Review, in October 1902, fourteen years after Kipling’s poem. The Spike was an early student newspaper, first published in that year. It continued as a bi-annual publication until 1931, when it became an annual publication.
The poem is to be found in The New Zealand Electronic Text Collection. This was created in 2002 as part of the School of English at Victoria University of Wellington, and in 2004 became part of the Library of Victoria University.
The poem was published just after the report of the Victoria College Debating Society, and we can safely assume that it was aimed at debaters.
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand is now known as Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.
[N.M./J.R.]