IN GOLD DIGGING DAYS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4512, 2 October 1930, Page 4

IN GOLD DIGGING DAYS.

Dunedin supplied a fair number of men who rushed to the Palmer goldfield, in Northern Queensland, early in the ’seventies, and some of them who survive may be reminded, by the narration of the Cromwell Gorge, hoarding's demolishing, of the doings on Sandy Creetk, says the Dunedin Star. The. one storekeeper there, when .stocking, took up a barrel of horseshoe nails, thinking that they would readily sell to diggers who, in loading their pack horses, eliminated to tin; last ounce e|verything of weight that was not eatable. it, chanced, however, 'there was no demand for the nails. Every man who had a horse carried a few in his pocket. After the nails had been on his hands for a. while he struck the brilliant idea that: he would force sales by refusing to sell any flour or sugar or rice unless the buyer also purchased an equal weight of nails. For a time file men grumbled hut bought, and, not needing the nails, put: them hack in the barrel, so that they became to the storekeeper what tlu l cruse was to the widow. Eventually the swindle got wind, and a big rumpus ensued. About a hundred diggers assembled and took charge of the store. They weighed the nails paid the full price, chucked them into the creek, and on a hoarding made of easement wood they noli ■lied all and sundry: ‘‘No more nails." Shortly afterwards on the same creek another declaration of the popular will was made. Sandy Creek was a tucker field, not rich, and when, a rush set in a few miles from Sandy (Creek the men went in a body, Inking, however, the preen n't ion of protecting their claims, by posting up the nolice: “Aliy Chinamen caught above this spot will be shot.” It was effective. The diggers made and administered their own laws up there in those days, and meted out rough justice very fairly.