Page:Letters from New Zealand (Harper).djvu/125

Rh their comradeship, rowdy, but honest, and free from crime. Most of them seem to have travelled much, and they have a way of treating you on the equal standing of your manhood, as if class distinctions did not exist. Whether I shall be able to use the chances they give me, in "giving me a show," remains to be seen. There is one great advantage in this work. The nature of their employment allows me to be amongst men whilst at work, as few parsons could be in town or country at home. It doesn't interrupt their work; they welcome my visits, and are greatly pleased to tell me all about it. Though their work looks like navvy work, it is work which calls out their abilities of observation and contrivance, for much depends on their rough and ready knowledge of the strata which may prove auriferous, and their skill in tunnelling, sinking, and the engineering of their water supply. They work in parties, in partnership, not for companies at present, and are not mere "hands," doing what a "boss" arranges. All this means much more than mere digging, and implies intelligence above that of the ordinary labourer. In fact, many are well educated men, whatever the external man may seem; all sorts, English, Scotch, Irish, Welsh, with a sprinkling of Swedes and Danes.

A few days later I was visiting a "sluicing claim" at Kanieri. Under a high terrace cliff, topped with big trees, a party of men were working, with the aid of a powerful stream of water, conducted through a hose, with which they attacked the cliff side; as the earth fell it was guided into channels formed of wood, called "tail races," with rough bottoms, in which the gold sinks and is retained, whilst the force of water washes the dirt away. Dangerous work; a man atop