This was a scandalous thing; for the digging constituent outnumbered all the rest of the population put together, thus forming what he would call the backbone and mainstay of the colony.

The labour of THEIR hands had raised the colony to its present pitch of prosperity.

And yet these same bold and hardy pioneers were held incapable of deciding jot or tittle in the public affairs of their adopted home.

Still unmoved, the diggers listened to this recital of their virtues.

But when one man, growing weary of the speaker's unctuous wordiness, discharged a fierce: "Why the hell don't yer git on to the bloody licence-tax ?" the audience was fire and flame in an instant.