XIV.

Otago Witness, Issue 2509, 16 April 1902, Page 22

XIV.

The Chinese were a very industrious race. I'hcy worked steadily from morning to night, and numbers of them made fortunes. 'They were not allowed to camp neur Karupeans, but a separate locality was set apart for them, in which they had thsir nwn stores and a Joss-house for worship. By their industry they secured large quauuties of gold out of abandoned workings when Europeans considered it was not worth working any longer. In many cases, r.'ter the Europeans had worked out their claims, and, as they thought, got all the gold out that was payable, the claims were nold to parties of Chinamen, who were conteut with a smaller wage. Very often the bargain was a profitable investment for " John," but they were often cheated by "nnprincipled men, who resorted to the most underhand proceedings in order to effect a sale. I know of one case that came under my notice at the Indigo. A.- party of men who considered their claim was no good offered it for hale to the Mongolians. They agreed to purchase the claim, but under the following conditions—viz., that they (the Chinamen) should be put in possession of the claim for t few hours in order to thoroughly test it by obtaining prospects from the various drives which Lad been put in by the original owners. This wa& readily agrscd to, and the Chinese party look temporary possession of the claim and proceeded to .v.ork it in their own way by sending down it man to knock out wasbdirt in all directions, having done which he pent the ■buckets of stuff to ths top, where one of Ihe '• Chinkies " took it to an adjacent water hole and washed out the various prospects as they we»ie brought to the surface. Well, one would consider that nothing could be fairer than th:se terms. Everything seemed fair and aboveboard. The owners had ileared away, and the Chinamen had it all to themselves. After the Chinamen had (as they thought) thoroughly prospected the claim they mad 2an offer to Hie proprietors of what they considered a fail amount, which was accepted, and the party was paid the price and they cleared nut.' Now. this is what happened early Fn the morning of the day on which the Chinamen were to take possession of the claim: the owners of the claim had proceeded to the shaft, when one man was lowered down the shaft abnut 50ft. where he proceeded to dig «i hole at one end large •bough to allow a man to hide him.«elf behind the " wind-iail" (a piece of calico «tretdhcd from top to bottom of. the shaft about a foot from th-3 end wall, which jjuged a current of pure air to descend). Previous to descending to' occupy the hole thai was prepared the man was supplied will a little fine gold of the same character »s tint which was obTairrcd on the lead. This he cirefully manipulated as each prospect w.i- drawn to lite surface by placing % small uuaatitY of the '"dust" on top

of the washdirt as it was passing his hiding-place. The gold freely mixed with the dirt, and the swindle was not discovered. As soon as the Chinese had finished prospecting the claim the man in the hole was drawn up to the surface and released from his solitary confinement. Very likely the whole transaction was a complete swindle, but I have heard of cases in which the " boot has been on the other leg,"' as many claims tLat were sold to the Chinese proved to have been only partially prospected, and in the end the purchase turned, out a gcod bargain for the buyers. Whilst on the Buekland I kept a horse, the ke:-p of which was very trilliner. as the sin rounding country was beautifully grassed everywhere, and all one had to do was to put the " hobbles " on and turn the horse adrift, and the feed was so good that there was little fear of the animals straying. On Sundays it was a grand sight to see a rc-gular cavalcade of mounted men starting for a long ride to the Ovens River or Morse's Creek, all dressed quite smartly in Garibaldi shirts and Panama or cabbagetree fiats and an expensive silk sash around the waist in lieu of braces. This rig-out would be for those who owned good, payable claims, and there were many such on the Buekland. The diggers on the Buckland were more settled than I had seen on any of the lower diggings, the cause of which was, I suppose, that they anticipated » loner course of work, as many of the extended claims would take years to work out. About this time I had a peculiar experience. A lady possessing a well-stocked freehold farm made a decided proposal to me in the way of matrimony. She was a widow possessed of a ruddy complexion, jvnd had plenty to say for herself ; in fact, she had so much to say tßat I could hardly get in a word edgeways. I was invited to walk right in and take possession of the whole estate, but I could not see my wayclear to take advantage of her generous offer. She was old enough to be my mother, so TL declined to take her at her word. However, to make amends for my ungallantry I recommended another man to try his luck with her. He took great pains in adorning his person previous to presenting himself, but he met with a direct refusal. When I interviewed the lady subsenrnently r-fi to his success she told me that he was the ugliest man that she ever set eyes on ; and according to my judgment she was about right. A great number of the diggers on the Buekland" were married men, and they were all comfortably settled in substantial hou-es surrounded by well kept gardens securely fenced in. Like all the hotels on the lower goldfields, the principal ones on the river were provided with a supply of young ladies who had been specially brought up from Melbourne to act a? " daucing girls." Dancing was the favourite pastime for the single men. and the saloons were crowded nightly. There was no charge for admittance, but the lucky partner was expected to shout drinks for himself and girl alter every dance : and this kind of thing nearly always continued till midnight, as there were no such things as 10 o'clock licenses in thots days. Those who followed up the game regularly were generally just able to make both ends meet. I often think how many are gone and forgotten who were ■ in the foremost ranks of the revellers in those days. Parrots of many varieties abounded in the Buekland district, and their p!umage in most cases was very beautiful. Kangaroos and wallabies were very plentiful, and the river was teeming with platypus, which could often be seen swimming about. I remember a little incident that once happened on the' Ovens River when we were living there. Up to that time I had not seen a platypus, neither had I heard of one being caught alive. Two sailors who were camped near us were walking along the sandbank that bordered the river when one felt the ground give way under him, and, feeling something soft under his foot, he put his hand down the hole and found it was a real live platypus. He immediately secured it and brought it up to the camp, where we kept it alive for some time., Possibly we might have tamed it. but, unfortunately, my brother took it down to the river side in order that it mijjht have a temporary bath while he held it in his hand ; but the platypus was too much for him. as it no sooner touched the water than it was out of his hand in a moment, and. of course, was at the bottom of th"c river before you could say "Jack Robinson." I suppose he was not holding it very tight for -fear of hurting it. My claim was paying well, and there was ground enough to last for years, and I thouzht that I was settled on the Buckland for a long time. But -about this time great accounts were being reeeiv-ed of the wonderful finds of gold tliat were petting in Gabriel's GuJly. New Zealand. But I had firmness enough for some time to resist the temptation to make another start. I was doing well, and might travel a long distance before I could better myself. Just at this time new* arrived of very rich finds being made at the Lachlan. on the New South Wales side. I withstood the" temptation as long as I was able, but, unfortunately, my good resolves began to waver. T was in a fix ; I knew that I was doii>2

well in my sluicing claim, and I might go another long journey and it might turn out like Stony Creek and Snowy River. I considered the matter well. I had a claim th;<t would probably give me v competency afttr a few years' Lard woik ; but. on the other hand, if I went to the Lachlan rush, perhaps the first claim I got might give me •enough to retire on. The work on the Buekland was very laborious — working in I the water from morning till night, generally ; wet through, especially about the legs and feet. I stood out fcr some time, but at last, having received a favourable offer for my share, I closed the bargain and bid farewell to the Buekland River. The Lachlan diggings had been open about eight or ten weeks previous to my arrival there. A large main street was laid out, and any amount of stores and business places were erected, as the population was very large. My first impressions of the place were not at all favourable in a digging sense. It was a flat country, surrounded on the outskirts by low ranges. I saw very little quartz scattered about on the surface, which I did not con&ider a good indication ; in fact, it was about om of the last places I should have chosen to prospect for gold. The discoverer of the field was a German, who had prospected the surrounding country for a long time with indifferent success. However, he persevered, and at last he found some auriferous surfacing ground on a little hill, which did not prove to be of much account, but it led him to think that there was a probability of its continuina into the adjacent flat. By the merest accident he selected the right spot to sink his prospecting hole (ihe flat was very wid?). and after considerable trouble with water in sinking he bottomed his hole, and it proved to be j iabulously rich (more like the rich holes on Ballarat than any other of the Victorian or New South Wales goldfields). I believe I am on the safe side when I state that the prospector's claim yielded from £25.000 to £30.000 worth of gold. I have seen him returning from his claim after washing up. carrying home his gold in a billy, probably more than half full, and so heavy that he could not cany it by the handle, but had to support it with one hand spread out under the bottom. The gold was not much water-worn, rather of a honeycomb nature, showing plainly that it had' not travelled far. It seemed almost miraculous that the prospector should be successful on the first attempt at sinking. He might hays sunk 50 holes and not got a speck of gold. There was no possible chance to get near the prospector's claim when I arrived, as the ground was pegged out as far as the Lachlan River, and, as well as I can recollect, there were 55 < claims taken up between the prospector's claim and the river. A number of claims were pegged out on the other side of the river, but I never heard of any gold being got on that side. Above the prospector's claim there were about the same number .of payable claims on the lead, making about 70 in all. Each claim was manned by eight men. which gave a total of 560 men in golden claims, and I have no doubt there were at least 20,000 men on the field. So one can see at a glance what a miserable place it -was for the great number of men who were assembled there, as there were no shallow diggings where they could eke out a livelihood. Being a new rush, eatables of all kinds (except beef) were very dear, especially bread. But you could purchase beef of the best quality for 3d per lb, .while bread was Is 3d per 1b : so it used to be besf and bread instead of bread and beef at our meals. To sum up the lead, with the exception of three or four claims at ths top, which were poor compared with the others lower down, all the claims gave the shareholders from £1500 to £5000 per man. I was well acquainted with one of the shareholders in a claim christened the " Homeward Bound," owned by eicrht Corniahmen. and he informed me that when they had got out £36.000 worth of gold they gave away their claim to another party of men, who each obtained £1000 per man. My informant was a Cornishman named Dicky Pen rose. He left the Lachlan for his home in Cornwall, but I learned on arrival in the Old Country that poor Dicky had made a complete mess of tlungs. He got married and made a bad job of it : he also fell info the hands of a lot of sharks, who robbed him of the gr?at part of Tiis savines, and by the end of five years his means were almost exhausted, and he only had enough to pay hi-- vussage to the Cape to begin life again. The majority of the rich claims were owned by " CJeordies " and "Cousin Jacks.'' Thc-v came by their wealth easily and the majority got rid of it equally easily. In taking a stroll up the main street on? day I came across 30 or 40 Geordies who had hundreds of pounds of hank-notes in their hands. They were betting on a throw of six pennies from a flat piece of wood : bets of from. £5 to £50 wer? made as to whether the result would he heads or taiis. lam sure that in many cases thousands of pounds changed hands. I was never on a diggings where I saw money spent more foolishly.

Turnip Seeds of the leading kinds, such as "Standard" Swede, Romney March, Sutton'a All the Year Round, Aberdeen Green and Pulpls Top Ycllov/s, of beat quality and strain, obtiinablt Xxom Xii;mo axid Bud?.* Dua§di»»