Page:Banking Under Difficulties- Or Life On The Goldfields Of Victoria, New South Wales And New Zealand (1888).pdf/53

44 window where ‘letters from home’ were delivered; the mail service was not then a regular one, and consequently everyone was always expecting letters, and hence the rush on a Saturday afternoon.

“The old tree which occupied a prominent position somewhere near what is now the corner of Forest and Barker streets, on which, before the local newspaper period, all sorts of notices were posted, as:—‘If the drayman who brought up a carpet bag and blanket on Thursday will bring them to Adams’ restaurant he will be rewarded.’ ‘Should this meet the eye of William Stiggins, he will find his old friend Splodgers at the fourth tent on the left hand side of New Chum Gully.’ Or—‘Wanted to sell, a lot of tools and watch-dog—Apply back of Toodle’s store.’ Much pleasant information might be gathered from this tree, and I have spent some little time in reading this stationary advertising-sheet.

“Then came the stormy days of pulling down tents, and of seizure of property in most arbitrary style, and brutalities which culminated throughout the goldfields, till the fatal affair of the Eureka at Ballarat brought matters to such a pass that the paternal Government of the day at last took measures to stay the gold-lace tyranny which had been riding rough-shod over the producing industry of the goldfields for some time.

“Castlemaine was celebrated at that time for its temperance in conducting the demonstration or indignation meetings of the time; I recollect one on Agitation Hill, now, by-the-bye, the locale of the Church of England, where a difference arose, and somebody, either the Revs. Jackson, Hitchcock, or Aberdeen, it does not matter much which, were laid by the heels in consequence. The criminal sessions were a curious sight in those days. In place of the triumphal entry of the judge into an English county town, the whole force of commissioners, troopers, and such civilians as could command a horse, used to meet his honor at Sawpit Gully—now Elphinstone. As the old ford of the creek through which the cortége had to pass was anything but pleasant, the splashed and bemired appearance of the judicial functionaries and their amateur escort can be better imagined than described. The scene was, as old Pepys would have said, ‘right pleasant to behold.’ As a general rule there was a proportion unseated at this point; however, the rest managed to scramble up the opposite bank, and with much clanking of accoutrements, jingling of spurs, and not a few ‘strange oaths,’ his honor would be handed over to the commissioner or some official of the camp, who would make him up a shake-down for the time he stopped.

“Sticking-up in the immediate vicinity of the town was common, and persons during their marketings hurried out of town before dark, so as to avoid the possibility of being waylaid and