A HOMILY ON THE HAAST.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1626, 21 October 1873, Page 2

A HOMILY ON THE HAAST.

[to the editor,]" Sir — Now, when that great calamity (the failure oftheHaast Rush) has befallen us, and when we are being sneered at by touts and bailiffs, and called dishonest by smart paragraph writers in the Grey Valley, I hope it will not be considered out of place in one of the feY unfortunate diggers remaining in Westland to point out some of the causes which tended to create a rnsh out of the discovery of a few ounces of gold in a place where many of us had already been bitten. There is little doubt but in doing so I will deserve the thanks of many a storekeeper, who, for the last fortnight, has been poring over the columns of figures in his ledger. If they (the storekeepers) see fit to thank me, it is well. If not, I will still have my say. That-is, Sir, with your favor. Digger-hunting, Sir, is at present as much the order of the day in Westland as it was in 1854 in Victoria, when the licenses were burnt in Ballarat, the only difference being in the management of the pack. Then we were honorably hunted by policemen on horseback with long swords by their sides, their whipper-in being a Commissioner with the Crown stuck on his hat. Now the pack has degenerated into a broken-down barber or hostler out of place, turned bailiff, whose whipper-in is generally a storekeeper, and cheered on, I am. sorry to say, by authority. No doubt we will be told by some parties that we deserve it, and that it is only a matter of simple honesty to settle our store^ bills before going to a rush, even if, as in the present case, it is within the County. If many of the diggers wait until then, they will not soon go to a rush anywhere. There is an old saying that when men unnecessarily preach honesty, you may as well button up your pockets. For my part I see nothing dishonest in a digger going to the Haast, or any other rush, if he thinks be can better himself by doing so, and, in fact, if he should be in debt to a storekeeper, under the present administration of the law, it is the only thing left for him to do. If the man who owes thousands of pounds goes into the Insolvent Court he has little difficulty in obtaining a certificate of honest misfortune, upon the payment of a few shillings in the pound, but if a digger, after having spent two" or three years of his time and all his money in prospecting or sinking duffers, asks. for a similar relief he is told that he must become the " wood and water joey" of his creditor or go to gaol. Instances of this dictum are too familiar to need mentioning, and every intelligent man in this; district can-point them out. These different readings of the law thus force that institution to truckle to position and make poverty . a crime, and never since the abolition of the Roman law of JVexi has it been carried out so well as we have it here — here at home in Westland. In some of the less advanced States of South America, there at present' exists 'a law making the debtor the slave of the creditor. Why not have such a law in Westland at once ? No doubt it would please such generous minds as the author of the "Biter bit." Men, sir, in all new countries, which require opening up, are liable to get into debt. This fact is admitted by the actions of our present Ministry, and is so well known in many of the States of North America that a law has there been wisely enacted, allowing all debtors to retain a certain amount of property, besides tools of trade, &c, which a creditor cannot touch; whereas, in a Westland digger hunt, if the hounds are successful in running down their game, everything even to an old pick or broken' down truck is at once confiscated, and the digger debtor turned out a pauper. The higher class of debtors generally get on better after a few turn's of the screw. These causes, besides many others which I could point out — were it permissible to call " a spade a spade " in West_ land— have tended more to swell th Q

ranks of the "Rushians." as we are poetically termed, than the expectation of getting much gold at a place so we.ll known as the Haast, for let U3 at once admit the truth, and what is more natural for a, man to say if in debt and his creditor oppressive, " This is a poor place ; I despair of ever being able to pay if I remain here ; the law will not give me relief; if this place is the paradise which some of the contributors to the public Preas paint it, lam acting generously to leave the sole possession to those who no doubt will, when they have managed to hunt all the real diggers off to the next new rush, turn round and hunt each other." I have some doubts of the poetry of these remarks, but who will doubt their truth? lam, &c;, Grey Shirt. New River, 11th. October. i ; >