A GOLDFIELD REMINISCENCE

Otago Witness, Issue 3395, 9 April 1919, Page 47

A GOLDFIELD REMINISCENCE

By Geo M. Habsixo.

But for ways that are dark, and tricks that

are vain, The Heathen Chinee is peculiar.

The above quotation from Bret Harte was on many occasions amusingly exemplified when the Otago goldfields became over-run by Chinese during the stampede of the European miners for the West Coast rush.

The Cardrona goldfield, which in the early sixties produced come very rich claims, notably the pirate, the Homeward Bound, and the Gin and Raspberry, each yielding the lucky shareholders a small fortune, became a happy hunting ground for the Celestials. About the commencement of the seventies, there were about 150 European miners on the field, and some 600 Chinamen. The lower part of the townshipbecame a Chinatown, with its cook-shops, gambling and opium dens, and all the accessories and smells of Chinese civilisation. In the evenings the four billiard tables were aleo well batronised by them. Money being plentiful, the township was lively, and things fairly humming. Many of the European miners were married, and most of them kept a cow, geese, and fowls. Now, among the Chinese was one fat, sleek, and oilylooking customer known as Pig Tung. He lived near the township in an isolated sod hut covered with sack roofing. Alongside his hut was a similar one, displaying a sliding trap-door in the sod wall. This hut was occupied by a big trained rooster belonging to Pig Tung. For weeks many of the miners' wives had been losing their hens in a mysterious manner without the slightest clue as to what had become of them. It was subsequently discovered that Pig Tung's rooster, when let out in the morning, would make direct for the nearest collection of hens where, by bowing, scrap-. ing, and making himself irresistibly agreeable, he would gradually lead them to his own quarters,- where the entrance through the trap-door was enticingly sprinkled with rice. It was a repetition of the old song, "Will you walk into my parlour." Having all entered, Pig Tung would smartly unfasten a string in his own hilt which suspended the trap-door in the rooster's apartment, and the hens were imprisoned. To kill, dress, and sell the fowls to the Chinese cook-shops was his chief occupation, and brought him in a nice little income.

After lovingly, capturing most of the hens, suspicion at length, fell upon that rooster. One day he flew over the. sod wall into the only fowl-yard that was fenced; but the good lady immediately spotted him, and a dexterous throw of a tomahawk laid him low—a dead bird.

The cunning audacity of Pig Tung was, however, exemplified by the fact that he actually, bland and childlike, called upon the lady who despatched the amorous rooster with this question, "You see him looster—Me lose 'em looster."

. Another characteristic incident of ways that are dark happened in this way: In the township were located two banks—the National and the Bank of New South Wales. The former had a resident agent, but the latter was visited once a week by the popular manager of the Cromwell branch, who used to ride over by way of the Roaring Meg to purchase gold and transact ordinary business. As the banker used to depart on the day after arrival, the gold-buying was chiefly done in the evening, often till a late hour. Pretty late one evening, a Chinaman entered to dispose of a few ounces of gold. The banker put the gold in the blower and ran the magnet through it to pick up any ironsand it might contain. The gold, being fairly coarse, was easily cleaned, and put into the large braes-beamed scales on the counter. The weights were in a box on a shelf immediately at the back of the banker, and this caused him to partly turn his body to pick the weights out of the box. The banker's practised eya could tell to within a pennyweight or two what this email parcel of gold ought to weigh j so before elevating the scales he put in the weights he considered should weigh up the gold in the opposite scale. It did not lift the gold, so ne put in a few more pennyweights. Still it did not raise the opposite scale. This puzzled him. He ran the magnet through it again. Then ha put in more weights. Still it would not lift the gold. He then put in an ounce weight, touched his finger to the elevater, which brought the scales up with a sharp jerk, when lo! on the counter dropped a flat lump of lead which had' been dexterously attached by means of gum to the bottom of the scales containing the gold. This lead had, of course, been cleverly and smartly affixed by the Chinaman while the banker turned to extract the weights out of the box behind him. When the lead dropped on the counter, and the scales containing the gold flew up, the trick immediately dawned upon the banker, who looked the Chinaman straight in the face. There was, however, not a movement in the Celestial's features that would indicate guilt on his part. His countenance was a study, a picture of innocence and serene happiness. The banker, who was a smart, powerful,, and resolute man, said nothing. . He just put the gold in the safe, walked round the counter, locked the door, and put the key in his pocket. Then he paid John his money, and, having done so, he went for that Chinaman.' The hiding he gave John made him waltz round that bank and yell for his life. His screams brought his country-men out of the cook-shops, gambling dens, and billiard saloons, till fully 100 had assembled outside the bank. Then suddenly the door opened, and a sadder but wiser Celestial shot out amongst Ms sympathising brethren. With a view of improving and elevating the moral end intellectual nature of the Chinese residents on the Creek as well as to supplement a small salary, I started

an adult Chines© evening school in the principal store kept by Mr Wang Yen. Only the and mining bosses joined the class which became most popular, and I was treated with every mark of respect by the pupils who displayed keen interest and remarkable aptitude in acquiring the rudiments of English. Dealing with arithmetical sumS was the most difficult problem owing to the habitual utso of the ball-frame to which they had always been accustomed. Some very amusing little incidents occurred in this school where I became known as Mr Ah Singj and whenever a perplexing problem involving thought was- set on the blackboard, my leading scholar, Wans Yen, would quietly slide into the front of the store whence he would presently re-appear, smiling serenely and carrying a tray with a glass of wine and, a cigar which he would courteously place on my iable with thja observation( "Welly good the master.* I also inculcated - Civics or the principles of British citizenship. My previous two gears' experience in the coastal towns of j China was of much value to me in coii* ducting the school. , When the alluvial claims became worked J out, th<j Chinese gradually left the Car» drona, and the school broke up; but a couple of years subsequently I had the pleasure of receiving & letter from one ot my pupils informing me that, as the effect or attending the classes, he had secured the appointment of interpreter tq the magistrates' court at Hongkong. Most of my Celestial pupils made sufft- j cient money to return to the j Land," but whether the subsequent ovett . throw of the Manchu Dynasty was in & remote way due to my democratic teach* ing is, of course, an open question.