town. If I had thought it necessary to call upon Mr. Rudder and those who were with him, instead of acting as I did, I should not have succeeded better—I probably should not have succeeded at all; and the probability is, that on the many occasions when I am necessarily alone, and in remote places, I might meet with defiance, as one who could do nothing unless his police were with him. I can rely on myself; I have the most perfect reliance on the men, one and all, that the government has given me; but I could never rely on special constables, however respectable: the more respectable the more unfit under the peculiar circumstances."
The same good sense and firmness characterise Mr. Hardy's answer to the deputation of diggers who came up to present a petition and some resolutions for the reduction of the licence fee from thirty shillings a month to seven shillings and sixpence:—"I informed the deputation that I should advise the government not to lower the licence fee, and I informed them of my reasons for so doing, as follows:—It was well ascertained that about eight hundred persons earned on an average £1 per diem; that about six or seven hundred earned from three to four or five shillings a day; that about three hundred earned nothing; that the first-mentioned eight hundred were able, industrious, and persevering men, working in the numerous favourable localities on the creek; that the second six or seven hundred were men who worked some time less than a week without judgment, and who had not the energy, strength, and bodily powers to be successful; that the last-mentioned three hundred were men who did not work at all, but, after looking about for a day or two, went off in disgust; consequently, that to the eight hundred successful diggers the thirty-shilling fee was positively nothing, seeing that any man could live well on nine shillings a week; that the remainder—the partially and totally unsuccessful—would be much better employed in their past avocations. That the government had to consider the general interests of the community, and not those of the diggers alone, and that those general interests would not be advanced by encouraging all the labouring hands of the colony to be employed in gold-digging."
In July the rush to the diggings had somewhat moderated, when the discovery of a hundredweight of gold revived and stimulated the excitement to a degree which affected all classes of society; and, after that discovery, crowds of gentlemen repaired to the diggings. This great prize having been raised by a gentleman (Dr. Kerr) who had not taken out a licence, the gold commissioner, in the exercise of his duty, seized it, in order to assert the rights of the crown. By an equitable arrange-
