The Gold Digger.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 28, 25 May 1870, Page 2

The Gold Digger.

The following sketch of the New Zealand digger is from the Greymouth Soar :—l suppose that one might search the world through and through without finding a class of men so hardy, so persevering, so courageous, so capable of bearing hardships, and withal so temperate, as the diggers on the West Coast of the Middle Island of New Zealand. They are the class of men to found colonies, and to trace out the resources of a . newly-discovered country. Nothing daunts them. They are the pick of the picked. They will penetrate the fastnesses of the closely-timbered forest, intertwined with thick scrub, and creeper, and undergrowth. They will cross the most .steep and apparently inaccessible ranges, or will descend into the wildest gorges or traverse precipitous heights, making their way by sheer dint of perseverence against all physical obstacles in search of the precious metal. Where a stranger to auriferous indications, with the exception of what he has read of in learn-edly-written books, or has heard of in scientific lectures, would pass over a tract of land, believing all above to be barren, and all below as worthless, an experienced digger—and we have them in abundance —will set to work with pick and shovel, and shew what his experience has taught him by bringing to light the golden ore* The digger is, par excellence, the direct aid immediate representative on the West Coast, as indeed he is in all the other pnvinces of New Zealand. He knows this wdl, and frequently, from being over indulge], and specially legislated for, he becomes spoiled, and is often both unreasonable and exacting. He appears, too often, to think, that the country was made specially for his own particular use, and never considers for a moment that there are any other interests to be looked to and cared for. H3 is, nevertheless, a credulous, trusting soit of man, and easily talked over and cajoled by political impostors and charlatans. But your true digger—he who has seen years of digging life—has many excellent qualities. He is invariably kind and considerate to any brethren in trouble and distresß. To rob a mate of his share of fairly j earned gold is a crime unknown. Tn New i Zealand there are not a dozen instances ■on record of this offence. Woe betide the man who was detected in it, He would have a miserable life of it among the mining fraternity if he did not clear out.