Old North Sydney

They're shifting old North Sydney,     Perhaps tis just as well,     Theyre carting off the houses     Where the old folks used to dwell.     Where only ghosts inhabit     They lay the old shops low;     But the Spirit of North Sydney,     It vanished long ago.     The Spirit of North Sydney,     The good old time and style,     It camped, maybe, at Crows Nest,     But only for a while.     It left about the season,     Or at the time, perhaps,     When old Inspector Cotter     Transferred his jokes and traps.     A brand new crowd is thronging     The brand new streets aglow     Where the Spirit of North Sydney     Would gossip long ago.     They will not know to-morrow,     Tho twere but yesterday,     Exactly how McMahons Point     And its ferry used to lay.     The good old friendly spirit     Its sorrows would unfold,     When householders were neighbours     And shop-keeping was old;     But now were busy strangers,     Our feelings we restrain,     The Spirit of North Sydney     Shall never come again!