Diggers' Eccentricities

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 66, 4 December 1886, Page 3

Diggers' Eccentricities

— ♦ Melbourne, November 24. In the last report of the Secretary for Mines the following is recorded: — "In the year 1855 a storekeeper named Donald Cameron, carrying on business at the Woolshed, was elected the first member of Parliament for the Ovens district, and he had the honor, unique in the history of the colony, of being driven in triumph from the Woolshed into Beechworth. in a gig with a tandem, the leading horse of which was shod with gold. A resident of the district has favored me with the following particulars of the occurrence :— Just before the election an eccentric individual known as Tinker Brown, who had made a lot of money on the diggings, suddenly purchased a circus, with tents, horses, waggons, &«., complete, and coming into Beechworth with his company he pffered to drive the newly elected fe^mber with a supply of golden horseshoes for the occasion. The Woolshed " bosses," who were greatly elated at the result of the election, were warmly taken up with Brown's idea, and they resolved, in addition, to present their member with a diamond scarf pia. The horseshoes were made by a working jeweller named Tofield, and weighed 9oz each The team was driven from Woolshed to Beechworth and back as far as Lasenna Hill. On removing the shoes of the leader. (a piebald circus horse) they were found to have lost a total of If oz each. Before " Tinker Brown" died he willed them to a married daughter, keeping a publichouse ai Wagga Wagga. They were in existence until about four years ago, when the owner had them melted intc sovereign.