Part 5 (1/2)

SLY GROG SHANTIES

But the harmony of such scenes was but too often disturbed by the noise of drunken revelry--

”Sottish setsshanties and hotel co the profits of their jewell'd claih selling intoxicating liquors was an illegal offence on the first gold-fields, yet, despite the vigilance of the Commissioners, the votaries of Bacchus were supplied with their spirituous coly contrived to conceal the illicit decoctions and carry on a brisk trade on the sly

The ingenuity of these sly grog-sellers in baffling the police evoked a corresponding sharpness on the part of the Coal practices When a plant was discovered its contents were either confiscated or wasted, and its owner, if found, was visited with the full wrath of the authorities, and afterwards punished according to the law

An instance of the summary manner in which some cases were dealt with is here inserted from _Glimpses of Life in Victoria_:--

”We stopped next before an eht of day, for it was half-open, and its interior was unusually neat and clean A heap of digging imple artlessly over the top of the tent (Mr ----'s informant had bidden him to take notice of a tent so decorated) Inside, at the furthest end, stood a large-sized bedstead, white and clean to outward appearance, with a deep valance running round the foot Nothing in the least suspicious was visible in this neat open dwelling; nevertheless, it was to the pure white couch that Mr -----, having dis of the tent, with the order that it should be searched forthwith The valance was lifted and disclosed a large quarter cask and several kegs full of rum, which were taken up and deposited outside

'Who is the owner of this tent?' deathered around him The question was repeated, but it fell, as before, on a silent assembly

”'Since this property has no owner,' said he, 'I will quickly show you what I will do with it'

”Catching hold of a pick that was lying at hand, he set to work hi a bucket into the liquor, he soused the tent inside and out; the kegs were emptied out in like manner, till the whole of the hoarded store was spilt, and the air was reeking with the sround, and the spirit igniting set fire to the tent, which flared and blazed up in a ry faces that looked on in gloomy silence, broken only by a half-s of the crowd

The flaun went off, producing for the ht truly be called sensational No one knehence the discharge had cory crowd had fired it, and whether others ht follow; presently, however, it was ascertained that the gun had been in the tent, and that the fire had caused it to explode 'We had better uns yet in that tent'

”As s were viewed by a certain class of diggers with anything but satisfaction Cries of 'It's a ---- sha feelings of the rougher eleenerally mortified by the restrictions of the liquor laws”

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CHAPTER V

_THE DIGGER'S LICENSE_

”Let active laws apply the needful curb, To guard the peace that riot would disturb; And Liberty, preserved from wild excess, Shall raise no feuds for arrievance which daily stirred up strife between the diggers and the Co of the license fee was from the first an invidious duty, which demanded a vast deal of tact on the part of the Coers were always opposed to the tax, and many were the ruses they adopted to escape its payment

The first skirmish in connection with this iers at the Point understood that no tax would be charged for the e prospecting on new gold-fields But the Coeneral appearance of cheerfulness that the field was yielding good returns

Yet the diggers gave most evasive answers to their inquiries as to the result of the prospecting, and reo the September tax These artifices led the Commissioners to suspect that the men on the Point were ains out of the range of the official eye But an old pioneer naold dust, and its discovery confir the suspicions of the Commissioners, they concluded that the coh to pay the tax, and thereupon announced that a license fee of fifteen shi+llings must be paid for the latter half of the nation of the diggers They held a , at which a man named Swindells mounted the ”stump,” and denounced the sharp conduct of the officials A deputation of two (the orator and a Mr Oddie) were appointed to interview the Coet them to revoke their decision This the Commissioners bluntly refused to do, and the two representatives, after a wordy ere coers now became exasperated, and when they further heard that Connor, theof the tax, had actually paid it, their wrath knew no bounds They bonnetted him, pelted him with reater indignities had not Oddie and a few others curbed their unbridled feelings by referring to the grey hairs of the delinquent

Notwithstanding this heated manifestation of ill-temper, the Commissioners enforced the license fee, and it was noticed, as is very often the case in popular deers succuive in indells, so that when he did apply for a license his consistent obnoxiousness was ree, and they refused to grant hiers, therefore, subscribed and presented hiold for his efforts on their behalf Swindells afterwards went to Forest Creek diggings, and as a report caers asserted that the Govern in Victoria because he had cha of the gold discoveries the Executive of Victoria had exercised their prerogative, as representatives of the Crown, to claim all preciousanyone to dig for gold unless under certain rules, one of which was that the gold-seeker should pay a license fee of 30s perhis search

The colony, which was then in its infancy, was governed according to the Crown Colony system; but by the incessant arrivals its population so increased in nuth as to be al powers The Government appear to have been particularly puzzled as to their duties towards the vast irregular society upon the gold-fields That it should be regarded as ht of population fro swooped down upon the gold sown broadcast in the land, would presently return whither it caold harvest, was the idea which must have occupied the minds of the authorities, for they never atteold-fields' population a part of the colony until the cla of the insurrectionists at Ballarat dispelled the illusion, and apprised the a social status to the gold-digger

The Executive of the day sought to solve the difficulty by the appointistrates or Commissioners, whose chief duty seeold-tax act

Now in the digging community were hts and liberties would have clashed with any forovernment These malcontents exasperated the Coed in them to be used in its fullest extent The police force were directed to keep continual watch on the fields, and compel the production of licenses as often as they pleased to ask for them Even the prudent exercise of this authority would no doubt have been galling to law-abiding , without the surveillance, is not as a rule congenial to the feelings of members of settled comenerally overbearing and insolent, and their want of tact when dealing with the rough natures on the diggings greatly increased the e the diggers for the collecting of the tax--the police being the hounds, while er in his wily attempt to escape pay