Tom hungerford.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 251, 21 November 1872, Page 9

Tom hungerford.

By William Baldwin.

A STORY OF THE EARLY DAYS OF THE OTAGO GOLDFIELDS.

Chapter XII. — Continued.

I remember once a Commissioner of Goldfields telling me he was very much persecuted in this same way when he took charge of a new rush. ; and that, do what he would, he could not rid himself o£ his persecutors, until by mere chance he happened to fall on the following plan. He always slept with his open razor close by -within reach of his hand, he said, and whenever one of those intruders came inside his tent of a morning, he laid hold of the razor and, waving it frantically above his head, rushed at the man in his nightshirt and red woollen nightcap, worn specially for the occasion. The man, of course, was frightened out of his very wits — who indeed would not be? — and fled from the spot — fled for his very life, too frightened to turn round and see whether this mad apparition was on his track or not until he had put a safe distance between himself and the place. , But ,no such expedient as this being known to Tom, he had to put up with the annoyance iv ths best way he could ; and a very great annoyance too it became at last. It did occur to him indeed that a good bulldog chained at his door would not be a bad ally to have ; but it also occurred to him that just at first the dog would be more dangerous to himself than to anybody else ; so that bulldog idea of his was given up.

Perhaps the crowd was denser between ten and four than during any other time of the day. Indeed during these six hours there was no getting near the office tent at all ; and how the police saved it from being crushed in a dozen times a day at least must, I am quite sure, have astonished the men themselves. The thing was a regular scramble from morning to night ; but it was a scramble that brought in a good deal of money in the way of reveuue. Why, during these first few days, theie was something over three thousand pounds collected, though the whole lot of it, the greater portion of ie at all events, narrowly escaped being lost on one occasion. It was in this way: One windy day shortly after his arrival, as Tom and O'Leary were sitting together in the tent counting over this money, as was their custom before commencing their day's work, a great gust struck the tent, tearing it away, and catching up the notes, before the two occupants knew where they were, swept a whole lot of them over the heads of the crowd outside. O'Leary, and his men, and the crowd gave instant chase. Of course it was good fuu to the crowd, and they enjoyed the thing thoroughly — jostling oue another, and tumbling each other over and over as they ran laughing after the notes. But it was no laughing matter to Tom, who was naturally anxious about the money, and, if the truth were known, never xpected to see the half of it back again. A goldfields crowd is, however, proverbially an honest one ; this one was so at all events, for the entire amount was recovered, with the exception of a few pounds, and they were probably lost down some digger's hole or another.

Yes; they had altogether a hard time of it, Tom and the sergeant ; but Tom's hard time commenced in real earnest when he set to work at the settlement of those disputes. In fact, when he came to think of them, his heart well nigh sank within him, so numerous were they, and so never ending did they seem. All day long he was at them, worn out in mind and body, moving about from one end of the field to the other with his tape line in his hand, hearing evidence, measuring off the claims, restoring their property, to rightful owners, and assessing damages.

We know, for it lias already been mentioned in a previous chapter, that the settlement of these mining disputes was a disagreeable and a difficult task; bllt I am not save fcliafc any mention has been made as to the danger, for it was sometimes dangerous, as I think you will come to admit before you lay down this chapter. And as to the difficulty: besides the difficulty and unpleasantness that usually attends the settlement of disputes of this kind, there was this in particular to be remembered when thinking of those early days, that the first Commissioners had nothing whatevertoguidethem; nothing but the common sense they possessed, andr whatever little experience they had acquired themselves beforehand. There were no 1 rules, no regulations, nor anything of that kind, you see, that men can^n'ow a days fall back upon for guidance ; and so these early Commissioners had just to get on as best they could, that's all. Now the men at Waitabuna knew all this perfectly wejl, and tried to take advantage of the knowledge ; but they very soon saw it was time thrown away to try anything of the kind, and so they soon gave that up.

It was the "jumping " that gave Tom so much bother, and trouble, and annoyance: Now this process of "jumping" is a very unpleasant process ; whether on the goldfields or off them matters not a whit.. The forcible seizure of onr goods and chattels by other men who are stronger and more porwerful than ourselves, for no. other

reason than that they are stronger and more powerful, is all very well ; very enjoyable and very lan ghable when wecome to read of it in the pages of a novel, but when the thing comes home to our door it ceases to be a laughing matter any longer. Now a man's claim is as much hio property, as much as any of his other possessions can be so called, and the forcible seizure of it by that process known as jumping is a matter very grievous to him.

Men on the goldfields accordingly, as a body, set their faces against this jumping ; but it is not easily stamped out just at first, being as much a part and parcel of a new rush as drinking, swearing, and 6ghting.

As I have iust said, it was a very common practice at Waitahuna ; so much so indeed, that many of the old hands about the place declared to Tom, in an aggrieved kind of way, that they had never before seen anything like it in their lives. " I have a-been all over Victoria, and I have a-been all over California," Cornish Bill said to him one day, " and I have never seen so much jumping afore in my life, as is a-going on in this here gully. Blow me if I have," he added emphatically. " And, it's myopinion, do you see, Mr. Hungerford, as them here chaps as is a playin' of this ere little game are a playin' of it together, and they aught to be put down." Tom began to think so to ; began to think that Cornish Bill might be right as to the concert that was being observed in the playing of this game ; and so he began to keep his eyes about him, and observe the fellows more narrowly, determining within himself that if it were so, he would put it down. And he found out that it was so, and that Cornish Bill was light. No doubt of it, thefellows had a strongfamily like ness, and very often the very same faces were turning up. Seeing this he set about making enquiries into the matter, and before long, had proof positive afforded him that the jumping was carried on systematically, by a gang of some fifty oi 1 sixty fellows, who were all leagued together, although, the better to escape detection, they acted in small parties of foul's or fives. He had proof positive I say of all this ; and moreover knew that they met secretly over night, and there and then came to an understanding among themselves, as to the claims that should be jumped next day ; and when the jumping was made, they would come pom ing in from all quarters, with their picker and shovels, ready by word and by deed to support their confederates. " What, turn these poor deceit chaps out of their claims, which was theirs as they knew, for hadn't they seen all of 'em a working it for days and days," they would say to the crowd. Things were going on this way for some little ■dene before Tom got to the bottom of the matter ; and a good deal of indignation was beginning to be felt in the gully, as the facts of the case came to ooze out, when one day he -was sent for to settle a dispute in the flat.

'•' What's the matter," he enquired, ashe came close up to the mouth of the claim, making his enquiry of the party who had sent for him, and who were covered over with blood, andsoreJy battered and bruised, and otherwise bore about them outwardly the marks of the rough handling they had experienced. "Me and my mates," answered one of the men, " took up this here claim four days ago, and have been a working of it ever since, until them chaps," pointing to his opponents, who were working away quite unconcernedly at the bottom of the claim, "came up to-day and drove us out of it."

" Come up here out of that, and show me your miners' rights," called out Tom, savagely, for he recognised the gang, and determined within himself that he would bring the matter to a crisis there and then, giving the fellows a piece of his mind, and warning them as to what they might expect for the future if they continued to carry on this nefarious work of theirs.

The men looked up doggedly, but never offered to move.

"Do you henr me. Come up out of that, will you," he repeated, still more savagely.

11 Who the devil are you 1" asked one of the fellows defiantly, leaning the while on his long handled shovel, and looking up scowlingly.

Tom lost bis temper.

" Damn you, I'll teach you who I am. Come up out of that or I'll have you dragged up."

" You may go to h— ll," said the fellow, with cool deliberate audacity, staring fixedly at Tom.

" Look here boys," spoke Tom, brimful of rage, to the crowd, " you are all of you, as much interested as I am in maintaining order here. I can't permit these fellows to go about in this way, jumping honest men's claims and setting the law at defiance. Most of the police are away just now, but we'll bring. them up to the camp ourselves. You'll help me, won*t you ?"

'• Horray," shouted Connemara Pat, a big Strapping Irishman 5 " begor we'll ate 'em." " Hurrah, for the Commissioner, boys," cried Cornish Bill, pulling his trousers well up under his strap. " Hurrah " echoed the crowd of angry diggers, as a number of them jumped down into the claim after Tom, and overpowering the jumpers pulled them along roughly.

"Thank you boys, they'll not trouble you again for some time; I promise you," said Tom, when the men had been handed over to the two solitary policeWen on duty at the camp*

" Hurrah for the Commissioner ! give it them hot," responded the crowd of diggers, returning well pleased to theiv worlc. "

Yes ; lie had a very hard time of it just at first ; a very hard time of it indeed. He was sick of it all, thoroughly sick of it, and so utterly prostrated in wind and body that he would gladly have thrown the whole thing up there and then, had it been only possible for him to do so. But of course ifc was not possible, was not to be thought of, in fact, for a single moment ; his honor, and«reputation, and self-respect, and his duty to the Government forbade the serious entertainment of such a thought for an instant- He knew this, and so he went on grind, grind, grind all day long from morning till night, with never a companion, or a friend, or a pleasure in the world to soften this hard grinding life of his. Can we wonder that, when he retired to his bed at night, he thanked God in his heart of hearts that one day more was past and gone. He longed earnestly for the return of the Fitzherberts, and the expectation of their speedy arrival was the one ray .of comfort that made his lot at all endurable. At last they came, after ten days absence, bringing Tim Dwyer with them, and then the worst of his troubles were over.

" How have you been getting on, oIJ fellow?" enquired Henry Fitzherbert as they all sat together in the tent the evening of their arrival.

" r tell you what it is," answered Tom, "I hope to heavens I shall never again pass ten such days. I didn't think it was possible for a fellow to undergo so much misery — such downright torture I might say — as I have undergone since I saw you. If Solomon had only known the sort of life a fellow lives up hero, instead of wishing that his enemy would write a book, I fully believe he would have wished him to have been a Commissioner of Goldfields. I know this, I should wish ra) bitterest enemy no worse fate." And then he gave the father and son an outline of the sovt of life he had been living since they left.