THE LAST DUFFER RUSH.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 589, 4 December 1869, Page 2

THE LAST DUFFER RUSH.

The victims of the recent " duffer rush" at Hokitika are disposed to blame Mr Warden Price for granting a prospecting claim. On this subject the evening paper says : It is growing a custom now when anything fails on a goldfield to blame either a Warden or a newspaper. If an unprejudiced view is taken, it will be seen that the latter has only, with an object of giving information, told the tale that was told to it, a tale that has generally been believed in before. And it will often, too. be found that neither newspaper nor warden is *so much to blame as miners themselves. Take the last hoax for instance. A man for purposes of his own comes to the Kanieri and begins to blow about a good find. He makes a find at once, for he finds good friends who " shepherd" him, who shout for him, who lend him money, and who make him drunk. He makes application for a prospecting claim, and Mr Warden Price goes up to the Kanieri to hear it. That gentleman has had experience in mining, is shrewd and practical, is, in short, the man for the position. He hears the application in court, while outside are waiting a couple of hundred men who have been telling themselves off into watches to keep an eye on the applicant, who firmly believe his story. Mr Price listens to that story, and the man tells him that the ground is six miles up the river, ten miles towards the ranges, but he cannot describe the bearings. Mr Price goes outside and says—(we are relating a fact) " Mv men, I do not like to grant this claim; the man • blows' too much, and he cannot describe it properly." The men cry out " Grant it, grant it." But says the Warden, "he can't tell the bearings ; he can give no satisfactory account. Remember Bruce Bay, and don't run * bullheaded' at the thing. It's you will be to blame, not me." Still the men cry " Grant it, grant it." And now they visit the blame on the shoulders of him who warned them, instead of upon their own.