The character of "Saltbush Bill" is introduced in this poem as a drover of sheep along "the track of the Overland", who stretches the "the law of the Great Stock Routes" by allowing his sheep to make use of all the good grass they find. On the occasion described in the poem, Bill's sheep have spread across a squatter's property. A Jackaroo arrives and attempts to drive the sheep back into the accepted "space of the half-mile track". An argument and then fight ensues between Bill and the Jackaroo, and, while Bill concedes after a marathon fight, in the end he achieves his aim of finding his sheep a good feed.
'The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses by Andrew (Banjo) Barton Paterson, dated 1896, was purchased from a charity ship. This was the first of his three volumes of verse. The second was Rio Grande's Last Race and Other Verses, which was followed by Saltbush Bill, J.P.., and Other Verses.' (Introduction)
A column canvassing current literary news including early sales figures for Henry Lawson's In the Days When the World Was Wide and Other Verses and A. B. Paterson's The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses.
Free-Lance also notes the up-coming publication of Edward Dyson's Rhymes from the Mines and Other Lines, comments on the publishing activity of Guy Boothby in London and commends Ethel Turner and Louise Mack on 'the honour of opening a new series of novels by leading English publishing houses'.
