NELSON CREEK.

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 393, 21 July 1868, Page 2

NELSON CREEK.

(To. the Editor of the Grey River Argus.) Sir— l have read with no small amount of surprise and indignation a letter which appeared in your last Saturday's issue signed " A Storekeeper," which would endeavor to convey the idea to the public I mind that in the district of Nelson Creek there existed a reign of terror. The writer states that for the laikt nine m6nths "a lawless mob of ruffians'* had " night after night broken into stores," and besides other criminal acts, had by a savage attack caused a party of miners to leave the creek. Now I have for nearly two years been intimately connected with, and nave frequently reported in your columns, as to the state of Nelson Creek, and I most distinctly and unhesitatingly deny that any of the allegations put forth are true. No gang of desperadoes exist ; no stores have been broken into; and no " miners" have been driven from the Creek. The facts of the case which, I strongly suspect, has provoked the letter referred to, is, that about two months ago the wide spread fame of Nelson Creek' attracted, among a large number of real miners, a party of youths whose appearance implied that their livelihood depended more upon the dexterous use of their fingers than upon the manual exercise of pick and shovel. So general was this impression that a nickname was applied to the "party" not generally consonant with honesty. Shortly after the advent of this questionable quartette, small articles were «onstantly missed from their tents by the diggers, wkere before theft was unknown. Shirts, drawers, flannels, pieces of beef, &O, were stolen, and on one occasion the head of a sluicebox with several weeks' washing robbed of its gold. You will scarcely wonder that, justly or not, suspicion fell upon these juvenile "miners," and the Creek rid of their unwelcome presence ; but that any working diggers have had to leave by forcible measures is not true, and I defy any one to show to the contrary. Of course, as is the case in any digging towusliip, drunken rows occasionally take place, but none interfering in any marked manner with the peace of the community, and no worse, if even ao bad, as I have frequently witnessed in Creeks with not one quarter of the population. As regards the writer's attacks upon Mr Dutton, I shall treat them with the contempt such untruths deserve, merely adding, that I am sure no storekeeper connected with the creek would utter them. I am, &c, Tour Own Correspondent.