FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 849, 18 December 1929, Page 10

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

REVELATION Father H. Valentin says that the ukulele was first taken to Haw r aii by Portuguese. Hence its name, meaning “jumpy flea.” Talk to your lady with a ukulele, Is good advice to all romantic chaps. Strum her a lightsome air that frivols gaily Of fealty and ardour—though perhaps The notes that sing “My heart belongs to thee,” Will but remind her of the jumping flea. How oft I’ve longed to go to Honolulu, Returning with that musical guitar, Whereon to trill devotions to my Lulu— My fondest love, tum-tum, my guiding star! But where stands passion, where romantic glee My lyre is but the symbol of the flea. So when across lagoon or moonlit river Some sentimental syncopations steal, No more in callow ecstasy I’ll shiver. ’Tis loathing and repugnance I shall feel, Reminded of a parasitic spree Upon some long-departed Portuguee ! THIS FESTIVE SEASON They do not stint themselves at One Tree Hill. Strawberries and cream, ices and the mysterious potations grouped under the title of “liquid refreshments” were purveyed at the One Tree Hill Road Board’s final meeting for the year last evening. Incidentally, someone mentioned that they did not have privileges like that on the Transport Board. There may be no spots at that body’s meetings, hut whether there are no spots on the board itself is a different proposition. * * * EUREKA The bloodshed at Rothbury colliery, N.S.W., makes it worth while to recount an interesting piece of Australian history, the affair of the Eureka stockade, the only episode iu the placid course of Australian history in which any organised factions clashed with bloodshed as the result. It is 75 years since this occasion, and the sole survivor of the affair at Eureka stockade is now living in Timaru. The trouble arose on the Ballarat diggings after two or three years of chaos on the newly-opened fields. Gold diggers were licensed on a cumbersome and unsatisfactory system, which produced a great deal of discontent. Corruption was rife among the police and mining officials, and a blundering Governor, Sir Charles Hotham, failed to bring to the problem the diplomacy and tact necessary to propitiate the 20,000-odd turbulent miners. * * * THE FLAME OF REBELLION James Bentley, who kept the Eureka hotel, was a rascally ex-convict whose loose conduct of his house offended the majority among the miners, yet he was vigorously protected by corrupt officials. On October 6, 1854, a miner named James Scobie was killed with a shovel at Bentley’s hotel. Bentley was believed to be implicated, and every presumption and shred of evidence strengthened this suspicion. No action was taken against him, however, until vigorous public opinion forced his arrest. The trial was a mockery, and he was acquitted. A flame of resentment swept the Ballarat field, and in a demonstration that occurred when 5,000-odd miners gathered outside the hotel, the building was sacked, and burned before the eyes of the frightened officials. Troops were sent up from Melbourne, and a handful of representative miners were arrested. Hundreds had been concerned in the riot, and the obvious injustice of the arrests, coupled with increasing feeling over the licence question, precipitated open conflict. RIFLES AGAINST PIKES Attempts to obtain the release of the arrested miners having failed, their comrades determined to make armed resistance against further injustices, and as a symbol of open defiance they burned their licences at a mass meeting at which 8,000 diggers made bonfires of the papers. A crude military organisation was formed under an educated Irishman named Peter Lalor, the son of a member of the English House of Commons. To facilitate drilling, the diggers threw up a light enclosure, later to be dignified with the title of stockade. Before their preparations were complete, however, and while the place was only scantily garrisoned, with a big German still toiling at his self-appointed task of turning picks and shovels into pikes for the ill-armed defenders, a strong military force attacked the place and routed its occupants, 24 being killed, and dozens, including Lalor, who lost an arm, badly wounded. The Governor’s victory only served to kindle stronger public feeling than ever in the miners’ cause. Eminent counsel offered their services for the subsequent trials, wherein ringleaders were charged with high treason. No verdict could be obtained, and the Governor dropped the later prosecutions after the first men acquitted had been borne shoulder-high through the crowded streets of Melbourne.