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"At dusk in the Terrace I met a tall soldierIn bravely peaked cap and a jacket of grey,"Oh, maiden," he sighed, "I am lost and I'mlonelyBecause they are stealing our Barracks away."We came with the convicts. We guardedyour country.Our graves have grown green grass for manya day.But who will remember the Pensioner Soldiers,If you let them steal all our history away?"At the Crimea I charged with the gallant SixHundred.My scars and my medals were won on thatday.But now in the Terrace my ghost will gowalkingBecause they are stealing our history away."Now you must fight for us, for we fight nolonger.The sabres we wielded are rusted today.Or must our brave spirits go wandering forgottenBecause they have stolen our Barracksaway?""So saying, the soldier saluted and left me.Through pale mist his grey shape wentmarching away.So far and so faintly a bugle kept calling,"Oh, don't let them steal all the Barracksaway" .22Dr B. Cohen (President, W.A. HistoricalSociety) claimed, "If, when this song is sungthe length and breadth of W.A., it doesn'ttouch the hearts of Mr Brand and his government,their hearts must be tougher than themortar holding the Barracks' bricks together."Although, in July, the song was recorded byAustralian overseas folk singer, Rolf Harris, itreceived a limited distribution and little publicity.Ministers' hearts remained intact—themortar crumbled.^^As the rubble was removed public attentionfocused on the remaining archway.Measuring Public Opinion:For students of politics the most fascinatingfeature of the Barracks issue was the searchby politicians, and other self-appointed pollsters,for "pubhc opinion". The poll conductedby the radio station 6IX had obvious defects,but some other assessments were not noticeablybetter. On 15th July The West Australianreported a journalist's survey, to the effect thattwelve out of sixteen people interviewed in St.George's Terrace, said, "Keep our Archway".And on that day the Premier was reported tohave reiterated that, "the government wouldleave it to the public to decide whether thearchway stayed". But when questioned on howhe would obtain public opinion he said, "I donot know".24 And later in July the same newspaperconducted a second survey based thistime on a larger sample. It asked its readersto return the coupon printed in one issue ofthe newspaper, with the sole question "Do youfavour retention of the Barracks' Archway?"11,035 readers responded, and they gave amajority of 7.15 to 1 in favour of retention.(9,681 for and 1,345 against).^s Was this publicopinion? In the view of the Editor, "The mostsignificant part of the poll was that 170,444people who bought the paper did not careenough .... to send in a vote". Soon afterthis it was reported that the government wasconsidering, "the possibility of city checkpointswhere people could express an opinion".^®It was the commercial television channelTVW7 that first attempted to inject an elementof professionalism into the assessment process.It commissioned McNair Surveys of Sydney toundertake a poll, and between 28-30 Septemberits employees asked 282 people in 29 of Perth'smetropolitan localities "Are you in favour ofretaining the Barracks Arch?" 43 per cent respondedin the affirmative, 32 per cent wereagainst, and 25 per cent had no opinion, orwere undecided. The survey classified the responseson the basis of sex and age groupingsand revealed that 51 per cent of women favouredkeeping the Arch and only 37 per centof men were of the same frame of mind.The result was announced to the public duringa break in a T.V. panel discussion on thesubject. Premier Brand (not a member of thepanel) appeared before the cameras for questioningand comment. In the light of the vigorousgive and take of the preceding discussionhis attitude appeared inflexible. He assertedthat, "The McNair results did not indicate adecision one way or the other". And his conclusionwas that, "the public presumably wasleaving a decision to the authorities".^'^The next poll was commissioned by theCabinet. Australian Public Opinion Polls, Melbourne(the Gallup Organisation) was chargedwith the task of measuring public opinion onthe future of the Archway. "The results forthcoming",said Premier Brand, would be only a"guide", . . . "The final decision would remainwith the government". The organisers of thepoll contended a sample of 500 persons wouldgive an assessment within 2 per cent of publicopinion; they picked fifty names from thefederal electoral roll for the metropolitan areaWESTERLY, No. 1 of 1967 57