Page:Old Westland (1939).pdf/234

210 There were other ways, too, of disposing of £5 notes, one of the most popular methods being to use them to light their pipes with, in place of the usual paper spills so much in evidence in those days. Such wanton waste has been a feature of all goldfields. Men the world over, when faced up to fabulous quantities of the metal royal, become gold crazed and invariably love to parade their wealth before all mankind. As an extreme example of this form of madness it is on record that a goldfields storekeeper in Victoria actually had his horse shod with golden shoes, the weight of each of the four being over seven ounces.

The diggers as a class also spent a deal of money on personal adornment. Expensive rings, tie pins and watch chains of gold and greenstone were regarded as an outward and visible sign of prosperity. Their style of dress, too, was most picturesque, the vogue being to wear a Crimean shirt and white moleskin trousers, which were held in position by a crimson silk sash, the bottoms of the trousers being pushed into knee-high boots. A black sombrero, very high-crowned and very wide in the brim, with a crimson silk cord round the band was the correct headwear, the whole get-up being most elaborate. With a population that was almost entirely male, it is hard to understand why these rugged men were so fastidious as to their attire. Yet they were so,