WEST COAST DIGGERS AND WEST COAST LIFE.

Colonist, Volume XXVI, Issue 3701, 4 September 1883, Page 4

WEST COAST DIGGERS AND WEST COAST LIFE.

I HKB the genome -New Zealand; cliggeij; lo though-in making this confusion I know jl. I tlball "offend the fine -gugeeptibiliUee' of ;myj friend Mr Softhead, and a few other patron's, belonging to thejsß^Vvetio.circles. I know 11. shall'be. accused of low taste and want of cuj- , /tured briticißm,,,e j ßpeoially when I give tbje l^Teaspnifor my lining. ' Still Imust maintain. ' I like tb"e Weßt'.Gbaßt digger. . He is a straight „,,.spoken,/natural-mannered, lineerimonial, and; .-'.unsophisticated being.,; His rough hands ait,e, „' »lwaji open to charitable donationfl. His v , careless, swaggering >gait bespeaks the, self >' possession of candeur.., There I, the digger ba^s his fauliff;;.but who has not. .Even virtuous] Cato-Cencorius was not altogether free from blame in that little affair with his souls •efvant-gir'l. I- willingly admit the defects pf .the goldminer. He may epit on your carpeted - floor rather much j be smells strougly. of rar>|kj tobacco; he keeps bis hat on in the bouse; bjo J "cariiea a little gravel under hie nails, arid then r he does not show any remarkable deep recpe.it <-- :fora ■wholesaleimerchant or a retired auc1 tioneer. But then; we: must expect these = little deficiencies in all communities and indp tiduale who are not very high in calture. By; ; Culture, I mean what is commonly understood ; by the term, viz., moving ia select sooiety ana v "mastering the arts'which it tenohes hb, the. ' -chief of which is that of concealing our real 1 * gelves, of saying \»bat we do not. mean, of admiring Mrs Jqces 1 pretty bonnet while she ; ;' i^preseht,',though: we: mentally say to out1-; selves, "What: a ; coarse-bred Creature yoju ■'■ The fine art; of dißßimulation belongs oiily s- l; to highly civilised lifeiand how could we eve;r hope of discovering it in- the rough miner. Lin'ng face to-foce with nature in the siledt talleys, he gradually drops into the vulgar habit of appeasing nature himself. Seeing ... not much of wbmank:nd, he lacks certainly ~ the sweelueas and light^which she calls forth from man'a nature; but then he laoks also the envy, the hatred, the hypooricy whioh the daughters of Eve (unwillingly we admit) ai*e the means of ezoiting. Snobbishness is almost , unknown among mining communities. Only one town on the West Coast can boast of having real snobs, and that class-division com- : mon to oivilised towns, that town is Westport'; . but, situated on the Coast it has nothing in ;'. common with any of the other towns. It has s tone of its own, .and not a very pleasant „ tone } for it is known as "the cavellirig town." And no wonder. Libel cases, Court ca?e?, and oases of dyspepsia are the orders of the day. One end of the only street is living in perpetual warfare with the other end, and belweeeu the two a man with aversion to 4 , pßrty-fepling firds himself oscillating like Mahomid'a cfßn. I have thought.that thjs . cavelling-prediliction. of the. place might be made the means of making it both famous and rich. ,I will state ;my plan in few words. v Could we not establish a hpapital for the cure of corpulence in/Westport. A few weeks, • amopg ,tle people there would have greater. effect upon the bulky ipatients than the celebrated anti-fat, and reduce a Tichborne claimant to a^'hungryl'Oaßsius-like figure.. IJothmjf like;worry for decreasing fat. ; -■'■•o--iri Gre.ymouth: and Hokitika, on the 'other band, there ia a free and easy social tone, noli without its touches.of rough playfulness and humor,,as i? illustrated by the following. .. incideHt.which occurred some years back. !- A certain Magistrate Lad been on the spree •with some jolly miners, one of whom, however, became slightly'furious, and had to be put under lock and key until the next, , day, when he was brought up before the Magistrate who had shouted for him the previous night. The accused disclaimed having been • drunk and disorderly. " Have you any witnesses ?" asked his Worship. " Yes, I have you! You1 was present at the • time. 1 was along with you the whole evening," was the reply. "All right," the R.M, said, "I will fine you 10s, and advise you to keep better company in the future." The Greymouth people are especially witty, genial, and hospitable. -You-must not believe that because the • West' Coast people are rather of the Bohemian sort, and perhaps pronounced a little uncouth from a quadrille assembly • point of view, that they are illiterate and ignorant. Far from it. You may find «sholar3 living in slab huts. '■.' Once on a ramble I entered such a hut, and to toy surprise I observed a whole row of books. I picked up one. It was Goethe's Faust in the original language. The owner of the hut was a Scotchman. He stood before me in dirty moleskin trousers, blue jumper, and big boots; but then he had a prominent forehead. The companion I bad •with me was an Englishman, but he was . dressed in long black cloth, wore gloves, and had a flat forehead," and he did not read Faust. Yet the latter was a gentleman, the :: former was not one. - s Certainly you cannot judge a man by the coat he wears,in any place; but you can do . it less here. In Eeefton I have seen men walking about in rough clothes and watertight boots, and yet these men were worth £20,000 or £30,000. Much has been, said about the : drunkenness of the West Coast, but this is ■ all a fable. I don't think you will find more confirmed drunkards among a hundred of miners than you will among [ the • same number of artizans. Generosity is .peculiar to all miners. No accident, trifling : or severe, ever happens but a subscription is raised.. Each puts his hand in his pocket ,and; expresses his sympathy in a thorough t English manner. Some time ago the wife of a.digger eloped with a younger and a handsomer, if not a better mail. At once a *. subscription list was sent round for the purpose, as was stated at the heading, " of raising a sum of money to console our esteemed friend for the sad calamity that has befallen him-"