GOLD STEALING

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 November 1930, Page 12

GOLD STEALING

WILES OF ILLICIT BUYERS. In the early days of quartz-reefing at Bendigo, gold-stealing was very prevalent (writes C. R. Pearce, in the Melbourne Argus.) The Shamrock, on the New Chum line or reef, was a rich mine, and one of the miners who had worked in it told me that when a new shift went to work after a fireing-out the men would race from the cage to the face of the reef to procure the richest specimens. He assured me that there were rich prizes to be won for speed of foot. When the companies took greater precautions gold-stealing became more systematic. The art of concealment was fostered, and strange and uncanny methods were adopted when men in the changing-room were forced to be stripped stark naked and searched. Naturally innocent men objected to such treatment. A “searcher,” a former policeman, told me in the Bendigo watchhouse that he was more afraid of the innocent men than the guilty. Leakages were not caused only by the man who worked hard for his “crust and his half-ounce” below. There were also opportunities on the surface. Going home on a narrow track between the lines of reef two miners saw a mine manager swagger ahead of them. It was crushing day. One of the miners called, “Say, boss! I think you’ve dropped something.” They had seen the trail of amalgam (quicksilver and gold). The mine manager was taking his “little bit” home from the battery, but the leakage was out. The trail of the amalgam was clear —it had trickled out of his pocket. The Chinese were always keen buyers of gold. Their ambition was to have £2OO and return to China and live like mandarins the rest of their lives. Perhaps the cost of living has risen in China since then, but my Chinese friends of 30 and 40 years ago enjoyed picturing the delights of life in China with a fortune of £2OO in gold. So small Chinese stores sprang up along the lines of reef, ostensibly for the sale of Chinese tea, preserved ginger, crackers, and confectionery, but the window displays were never changed, and the conversation lollies bore marks that were years old. Most of “John’s” business was conducted, not in the shop, but in a back room, where he made excellent bargains out of stolen gold, and added another wife to his list as he counted out his half-yearly gains. Not content with their profits when the mines in the neighbourhood of Sailor’s Gully, Eaglehawk, were flourishing, the Chinese resorted to a new way of winning Australian gold. The municipal engineer was at a loss to know why portion of the Sailor’s

Gully Road was always so well swept —in fact, it was swept so cleanly that the binding gave way and it crumbled. Along this stretch of road came many drays laden with erold-bearing quartz from the Specimen Hill, Clarence, and other mines for the New Moon battery. As the loaded drays went along pieces of quartz fell out,, and were crushed by succeeding wheels, so the 'wily Chinese added to theii- income by sweeping the road on moonlight nights or at dawn and washing the sweepings for gold. When the Gold-buyers’ Act was enforced illicit gold-buyers had to resort to devious methods to avoid detection. The Chinese and the licensees of small hotels, who carried on the treble mainly after midnight, were practically forced out of business. By this time buyers of stolen gold with greater enterprise had arisen. They had nice homes, with shady flower gardens. On some garden gates there were brass plates, perhaps bearing the words, “Music taught here.” Detectives raided the home of one suspected buyer of stolen gold several times, after the receipt of good information, generally given by a woman, but they found nothing. One detective, after he had kicked for the sixth time a brick covered with green baize, which held back the front door, remarked. “You are very fond of fresh air here.” The detective did not suspect that the brick was hollow, and that there were several ounces of gold inside it. One evening I was travelling from Bendigo to Melbourne. The train was crowded with passengers, for there were few motor-cars then. When we reached Kyneton I was reading a book. The man opposite me in the crowded compartment said, as the other passengers were going out, "Well, I suppose we had better have something to eat.” I put the book on my seat, and he took a brown-paper parcel from the rack and placed it on his seat. We strolled along the platform into the dining-room, and were the last to re-enter the railway carriage after dinner and a smoke and walk along the platform. All the while gold worth more than £lOOO was lying in the brown-paper parcel on the railway carriage seat. Months passed before I learned this. The detectives were on the watch in the other direction.