REMINISCENCES OF EARLY DIGGINGS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6302, 15 July 1882, Page 3

REMINISCENCES OF EARLY DIGGINGS.

The following appeared under the signature of " lota," in a recent issue of the Cromwell Argus : — In a late issue of the Otago Witness, " our own reporter," giving an account of his excursion together with others to the Tuapeka copper and antimony mines, mentions that two or three old Victorians in this company regaled the party with anecdotes of Bendigo, Forest Creek, and those places, when in the palmy days thousands of pounds were won and lost, when the yellow nuggets could be picked up in abundance, and the reckless digger paid for a " shout; " for himself and his mate with a pinch of gold-dust taken from no more fashionable a receptacle than one of Bell and Black's tin match boxes. On reading this paragraph I could not but

think the old Victorians were doing, in colonial parlance, a little blowing (they wiil do it) or elso having 'our own.' It* in almost about 30 years since I worked on the diggings referred to, and got a fair share of gold, and had to work for it. Picking up nuggets— eh ! In another ten years, if I live, I am confident some person will tell mo that on Bendigo one digger used to hold the bag and his m.ate shovel in the gold. BeU and Black's matches were not for sale on the diggings for years after tho gold discoveries ; wooden matches in round wooden boxes, I. N.E. brand, were in use. When paying for goods the storekeeper considered one box equivalent for sixpence change ; diggers used to carry gold in them. e3pocially coarse pieces. A box held from 8 to 10 ounces of golddust. Intoxicating liquors were not allowed on the goldfields by the authorities, but were smuggled there and sold from Is Gd to 2s per " nobbier "—there was plenty of money to pay for grog. The pinch of gold dust yarn is imported from California, where diggers in the early days used to hold their gold bags open to the keeper of the whisky ranch, who took a pinch per drink. One knowing old fellow made thia style of currency pay well, he always kept a dry pea in his pocket, and whenever his hand was disengaged, he got the pea between his finger and thumb and squeezed it— then ho could do a pinch from a gold-bag witb a vengeance. Money waa not spent on tlie diggings when they were first opened, as some peoplo think. A shanty keeper dare not have men drunk about hie place, tho police would soon make a raid on him. Diggers were seldom away from their tents after dark ; they worked hard, accumulated gold, which they sent per escort to Melbourne, following when it suited them. Many of them " knocked it down " wholesale, new chums vicing with old hands in mad drinking bouts. Some did the extravagant with a princely air, for instauce : Digger and sweetheart visit drapers. — Digger : " Like a shawl Mary 1" Mary : " 01), yos." Draper produces one, "real Cashmere," prico £50. Digger pays with a £100 note. Draper, short of cash : "Very Borry." Digger: Never mind; Mary, take another shawl !" and Mary did. Of course many took care of their money, and prospered. But the fact of the matter is, most of the money went through the whisky-mill. Had the Government of the day given men the chance of investing their mouey in land, some millions of money would have been retained in the colonies inatead of letting it go to other lands for spirits, not to speak of the money paid for flour and other necessaries of life, which could have been produced at home, instead of being imported. Had New Zealand put land into the markefc nineteen years ago, when men made money at the diggings here, many of whom are now settled and landowners in Sydney, Victoria, the Cape, and America, I am sure the country would be in a much more prosperous condition today. Surely the example of Victoria ought to have opened the ejes of our sapient legislators.