The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday, April 9, 1864.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 99, 9 April 1864, Page 4

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday, April 9, 1864.

The gold discoveries of California and Australia are not so remote but that there are many among us wh well remember their effect on the public mind in the " old country." Sixteen years ago in the one case, and thirteen in the other, the gold fever was raging in full vigor, and " off to the diggings" was the general cry. Thousands went, and among them numbers who were entirely unfitted, both by constitution and training, to undergo the perils and hardships of a gold digger's life in an unknown and unexplored country. It is only natural to conclude then, that either they had to suffer for their temerity if without funds; or if they had, that the ship that conveyed them from their native shores, brought them back again with long fac s.much repentance, and crammed to the muzzle with yarns of hardship and danger. For their own sake. such men would make as much as possible of what they passed through—less for the purpose of deterring others, than to shield themselves from the imputation of being milksops or fools. " A bad workman quarrels with his tools," and this proverb holds good in regard to more trades than one. In like manner, the opening of the Now Zealand goldnelds has had its effect in attracting a number of men of unsettled habits or disposition; and the general ill-luck which has attended them, and which might have been foretold by the very weakest-inspired prophet in the world, has been made the theme of many a long communication to the public press. In another column we publsh entire one of these gloomy recitals, for it is well worth reading, as a specimen of the falsehood, ignorance and exaggeration indulged in by these returned soi-disant diggers. It is a treat, and we can only feel sorry that the editor of the Colonist did not think it worth while to favor the v orld with a portrait of this Nelson Munchausen. Judging from the first paragraph, we imagine that it was somewhere in the neigh-

borhood of the Dunstan that this man of many trials was suffering. It seems strange that, while talking of living " up to the neck" in snow, the writer talks of " taking a sharp run" to warm himself. What astonishing power of locomotion he must possess ! And how dramatically is the death of his two mates related—" one on each side " of him. The next thing that strikes us as being remarkable is the proficiency he displays in the science of numeration. " Hundreds and thousands" are ringing chimes throughout the whole letter, and would lead one to suppose he had been taking a lesson from some Exeter Hall speakers on a South-Sea Island missionary night. " There are," he says, " from 35,000 to 40,000 men on the diggings, or were that number not long ago." We look upon the latter part of this sentence as extremely appropriate; for, after reading the way in which hundreds and thousands are knocked about by the narrator, we are half inclined to believe there are no diggers at all in the country—at all events, there shouldn't be. Let us see: we have 40,000 men in the country. Against this, we have only 400 set down in positive numbers, as having gone away from Otago, but then " thousands died of scurvy and dysentery, hundreds more of starvation, and many of whose fate no one knew anything"—not even our " digger," we suppose. Hundreds were on the road penniless, and thousands going into Dunedin; " thousands and hundreds" prospecting on the Taieri, " while thousands could not get a foot of ground." Heaven help us! talk about eleven men in buckram out of two, after this. Our " digger" appears to have acted on the hint of the stage manager, who instructed his two " devils" to "spread themselves out, and look as much like a legion as possible " One advantage has accrued from this proceeding: though laid on thick enough in all conscience at first, he has " spread" to such an extent as to allow the covering to get thin euough to be easily seen through. Criticism becomes tedious when it merely consists of enumeratiug a series of barefaced falsehoods and exaggerations, and we are getting pretty well sick of this job. We are reduced to one of two alternatives —either this man is an unfortunate hero of the first water, or one whose digging experk/nce has been confined to the corner of Jetty-street, Dunedin, and the Provincial archway; and judging from his statement that the Hogbubn " won't go down;" that it is impossible to turn it; and that it rises 60 feet in a single night," we are inclined to the latter opinion. It may perhaps be news to the editor of the Colonist to inform him that the Hogburn is a little creek containing about half-a-dozen sluice heads of wattr; and a petition has actually been sent to the Government, praying them to purchase the few water-races on the field. Diggers (so-called) may be classed under separate headings, but the chief divisions are—the man unfitted for mining; the "loafer" who don't work, whether he can or no; and the man who intends to work, and does work. Is it not strange that the lucky digger's "experiences" are never ushered into print ? We are favored enough with gloomy accounts, surely. Are we to imagine that the third class of diggers above quoted has no occasion to write, or does the cacoetkes scribendi only seize upon the unlucky ? Certainly, as a rule,, from the perusal of the multitude of letters that have appeared depreciating the Otago fields, the writers appear more successful in that line than in digging. It is strange, after reading such a dismal story, to notice the finale—" had he not been a married man, with a family, he would go to the diggings again." Now, what are we to think of such a declaration, and of such a man ? " Bad as Otago is, everybody feels it u ill be worse yet"—(God forbid, if what the " digger" says of the place be true) —and yet he would go again. A schoolboy, when afraid to fight, says, " If such and such were not the case, I would," &c, &c. Does not the "digger" talk something like a child in this story? After a two-years' absence from that family he has to " look after," his dormant affection is aroused, and he goes to look after them accordingly. If he has been as unlucky as he says, his two years' kindness to them must have been, as Jerrold says, " unremitting" kindness; and we si.cerely trust his family will manage to exist during the time he is with them—for it must have done so in his absence, or this very open-hearted " digger" would have said otherwise. From his expressed i desire to again try the diggings, we can draw three conclusions—that during a two years' " run ashore," away from his family, he was not so very unlucky after all, but had to account in some measure for coming back with empty pockets; that he is, without exception, the greatest numbskull in creation—one on whom all reason would be lost, when even two years' " bitter experience" has had no effect; or else that his expression merely consists of unmitigated " gas," he feeling sure that the excuse of " his family" is sufficient reason for

his staying at home, and yet wishing to get, cheap, a name for heroism, like the beforementioned schoolboy. We should not have taken any notice of this bunkum, were it not that the pertinacity and increasing impudence of our detractors compel us to do so: for to be silent would imply acquiescence. We do not deny that there was great suffering last winter, but we do most flatly, that it was a tithe of that related in the Colonist. Our digger is either a loafer —and from the ignorance displayed throughout his narration, this, we are inclined to believe is the truth—or he is one of those *' new chum" diggers found always at the beginning, though seldom at the end of a rush,—who, possessed of nothing necessary for digging, but with a plentiful stock of conceit, a watch, revolver, white shirts and collars, and may-be, a'* bell-topper"—start off digging. We saw one genius at the time of the Dunstan rush, tramping along with a carpet bag and umbrella! What can be expected of such men ? the only wonder is that they can manage to eke out a living at all. While they can do so. it proves that—notwithstanding this " dark side of the Otago diggings,"—the devil is not so black as he is painted. + That farce, the Wakatip election, has been again gone through at Mr M'Kenzie's station, Glenquoich. On the last occasion, two electors returned the late candidate, Mr Pin kerton who seems to have felt such honors a heavy burden, for, after the very brief political career of a solitary session, the honorable member "caved in." We should like to have seen the valedictory address of this gentleman, and to have learnt his opinions upon the responsibility attached to the representation of a constituency of eight. Probably we shall never be enlightened upon so important a matter, as Mr Pinkerton doesnot even s em to have attended the place of nomination on the recent occasion, lest, peradventure, the mantle might again have fallen upon those unwilling shoulders. The farce beats even the celebrated election of the Hon. Mr Fellows, in the early days of the Victorian goldfields, when he travelled two hundred miles to fiud a bullock team for a hustings; had to propose and second himself, and was declared duly elected by the returning officer for the Murray boroughs, to two non-electors in the shape of the bullock punchers who worked the team, and the disgust of a " bobby" trotted out to lend eclat to the scene. The Wakatip is worse off, for it cannot find any political Barkis who *• is willing." Joking apart, the matter is no light one, and it is one that is necessary to be remembered at some future time, when this district shall apply to have the place of nomination removed to a more central and populated locality. The eight electors in that portion of the district have told us as plainly as possible that either they do not value the privileges they possess, or that they feel the duty too onerous a one to fulfil, and therefore, neither the government nor they themselves can object hereafter to some change that shall prevent the rep; tilion of such a disgraceful proceeding, and will secure at least a member to represent the Wakatip District in the Provincial Council of Otago. Nothing can, however, be done in the matter on our part until the new roll is completed.