THE DIGGER AND HIS NAME

Evening Star, Issue 16990, 12 March 1919, Page 4

THE DIGGER AND HIS NAME

AFFECTIONATE NEW ZEALANDERS. A correspondent fends the followinc oxtract from the ' Kin Ora Coo-ee' of 15th December. The 'K.O.C' is the official organ of Anzacs (Australia and New Zealand) in Eoypt and eastward. The extract is in the form of a letter: "Butler Gvd writes from France: "Just souTpriire.-l a copy -if tffc September issue of the 'Kin, Ora, Coo-ee' from a Maoriland Digger's dugout. It's good rondimr. but T, on behalf .if mv cobbers over here, object to what 'Gimga' has to say concerning the derivation and application of the term 'Digger.' Tn his int»r- -- ting article. ' The Two Leaves,' he pfates that its origin is recent and obscure. It's neither. AN OLD NAME. "The tei-m 'Digger' is as old as the most ancient goldfield in A.iiftralia or JJaoriland, and it has nothing whatever to do with diguing-in. In the roarin-» days of the lands of the Southern Cross a 'Digger* was one who. regardless of all chngers and hardships', pushed out beyond the marge of civilisation in quest of gold. Ho was a big-hearted fellow, too He never hesitated about shrjius a last crust with << needy stranger, and accepted the responsibilities of a, mate who went under as hi* own. He had -a high, almost exalted, M'ii«! of morality, and by him justice was not measured by legal standards, but embodied the principles of right and wrong in direct relationship to obligation and ownership. " And h-e had a healthy hatred of sham and ostentation. Tlins the torra ' Ditrger' w.-s an honorable appellation. " And set it is to-day, when the. descendants of those who pioneered the goldfields of Australia—Bendigo, Ballarat, Giilcr.iig, Tumut., and numerous other 'rushes'—and in New- Zealand—Gabriel's Gully, the Dunstan, Thames Valley, and the Woit Coast—along with others who were born under the Southern Cross and those who have made their homes there. are nditins: on the battlefields of France and Palestine to win for this and future generations the pure metal of a free aa-d u ntramm elled ci vi 1 isation. "REAL DINIvUM MATES." "The Maorilanders applied the term to members of the A.I.F. soon after arrival in France, implying that the Ausaies were real dinkum mates. It quickly caught on, and it now embraces all the forces from the Southern Dominion;. It was never to my knowledge restricted to ground privates only, bat always included tha mounted troops, whether in France or Pakstine. . "An Aussie invariably greets a Maorilander as ' Digger,' and the men from tha Pig Islands, m common with us, use tha term in relation to one another, whether infantry, artillery, or mounted. "As regards 'Billjim,' it never was a generic term in France. That corruption of William and James ia a coinage of th« Sydney 'Bulletin,' while ' Billzac' has had no place except in print, and then only used by persons who have no m»Te than a nodding acquaintance with us."