Page:Letters from New Zealand (Harper).djvu/195

Rh been arranged, and what with concert, speeches, and supper, we were not free to accept the hospitality of the Warden of the Goldfield till long after midnight. A Welshman with his harp played so well that he roused the enthusiasm of the audience, a pianist accompanying him, and to my astonishment he told me that he played entirely by ear. Just before the concert began the conductor came to me with a man who was to be the comic singer of the evening, well worth hearing. "I thought, Archdeacon, as the Bishop's here, you'd like to see the words of the song; will it do?" "Well," I said, "Very well, but I think he had better omit that verse." "Now mind, Jack," he said, "you drop that verse about Cain and Abel."

Ross by night is as full of work as by day, the deep sinking claims being worked by shifts all through the twenty-four hours, the whole place lit up with flare lamps, and the rattle of the engines never ceases.

The work here, owing to the nature of the ground is dangerous; accidents are frequent, two having lately occurred of such a strange kind that you may like to have some account of them.

In the upper part of the valley which forms the principal field, the gold lies at no great depth and, instead of sinking shafts, a considerable excavation is made, called a paddock, stones and soil being hauled up to the surface, until the wash-dirt is laid bare, leaving a wide shallow pit, with steep sides, and a quantity of stuff in heaps about the edges. In one of these places a party of men were at work, all of whom at the dinner hour had come up to go to their homes, except one who remained below to fix some timber work. Suddenly a slip took place in one of the heaps