THE LITTLE GREY RUSH.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 773, 7 February 1871, Page 2

THE LITTLE GREY RUSH.

The rush to the Little Grey District, says the " Argus" has turned out to be a " rank duffer," and one of the most deliberately planned and coolly executed hoaxes ever perpetrated upon a mining community. As Baker continued to persist in the truth of his story, the search was continued all Wednesday by Mr Woolley, Government Surveyor, Constable Dorris, and Baker alone, Mr Woolley having ordered back the whole crowd of miners who were following them, under the threat that if they continued to dodge them the search would be discontinued. After enduring great hardships, the party returned to the Mia-Mia Hotel late on Wednesday night, and on Thursday morning Baker was sent back to the Ahaura in tharge of Constable Dorris, while Mr Woolley determined to have another day's search in company with a number of miners, for the spot indicated, as Baker si.il! persisted iu his story. It was with great difficulty that Constable Dorris could protect Baker from the fury of the miners he had so cruelly deceived. On Thursday evening he arrived at the Ahaura Township, and presented a most woe-begone appearance as he was being taken through the street to the lock-up. The Resident Magistrate's and Warden's Courts were sitting at the time, and as there were a large number of men in town, it may be imagined that Baker got a warm reception, and that Constable Dorris had his work to do to protect him. At midnight on Thursday, Mr Woolley got back to the Ahaura, and pronounced the rush a " rank duffer." The " prospector," Baker, then made a clean breast of it, and acknowledged that he had never been up the Little Grey at ail; that he had been bribed to cause the rush, and he gave up to the police the name of the person who was in collusion with him; but they, very wisely, refuse to divulge it until he is in custody. When Mr Woolley left the miners were threatening to pull down the Mia-Mia Hotel, as they believed that some person connected with it was at the bottom of the affair. Baker was to be brought up before the Magistrate at the Ahaura yesterday or today uuder one of the clauses of the Amended Vagrant Act, which, fortunately, is elastic enough to reach and punish—but not half severely—the delinquent in this case.—[We have since learnt that Baker has, probably under some clause of the Vagrant Act, been sentenced by Mr Warden Whitefoord to six months' imprisonment.]