TO THE GOLD DIGGERS OF THE PROVINCE OF NELSON.

Colonist, Issue 26, 19 January 1858, Page 2

TO THE GOLD DIGGERS OF THE PROVINCE OF NELSON.

(Per favour of the Colonist.) Brother Diggers,—Doubtless most of you have read with some astonishment the proposed New Gold Fields Regulations, as published in the Examiner of the 80th December —regulations which, if carried into law, will cripple theMining Interest in this Province. Storekeeper and digger will alike suffer from their baneful effects. In some respects they may suit the lucky digger—but how few in number are these—not more than four or five parties—while the unlucky ones comprise more than two-tbirds of the whole population of the gold fields.

The framers of the proposed measure seem 1 ignorant of the nature of gold digging in NewZealand: they, appear to be altogether ignorant - of the hardships endured by those who toil early „&nd late, in order to get a sufficient quantity of. the precious metal to parchase the common necessaries of life. How often does it happen that not only weeks, but months of toil are rendered perfectly useless by one night's flood ? Fellow diggers,—your' perseverance under every trying circumstance, your sobriety, your general good behaviour, have been proverbial; and it now, becomes your duty as loyal eubjeots, a duty to yourselves- and to your country, to rise as one man, andi-petition the Government, . not to give its sanction to a measure which can produce nothing but injustice to the. digging community, and utter ruin to the digging irite-' rest generally. A DIGGER. it not an indisputable fact, that the Slate River is done, Anatoki proved a failure, and the diggers fast making a move homewards? Aorere Gold Fields, Jan. 6, 1858.