i4 2 Australian Life 



roll of blankets. In five minutes, judgment is 

 pronounced the thief must leave the camp within 

 an hour's time. He must pack his swag and fill 

 his water-bag, and then take his chance upon the 

 track, for they have no use for him or his kind at 

 the Back of Beyond Rush. To the credit of the 

 prospector, it must be said that the necessity for 

 this rough-and-ready justice is only occasionally 

 felt, for the men who have pluck enough to make 

 their way to these early rushes, have too much 

 character to commit any offence so repugnant to 

 the mind of the digger as tent robbery. We will 

 leave Back of Beyond while its future is still un- 

 defined. It may be that beneath its red sands it 

 hides veins of rich ore that will make it another 

 Kalgoorlie; or six months hence there may be 

 nothing but a heap of empty meat tins to show 

 that men had once built golden hopes on the 

 foundation of its barren sands. 



On one of these western mining camps, there 

 occurred a curious mining dispute between 

 Capital and Labour. Capital in this instance 

 was represented by the local publican, who re- 

 tailed beer to the thirsty miners at the price of 

 one shilling for a large glass. The miners, of 

 course, enacted the part of Labour, and demanded 

 that the price should be reduced by one half, since 

 gold was becoming scarcer and less easily won. 

 Secure from competition, the publican held his 

 ground, and a beer strike was proclaimed by the 

 men. For some weeks, the conflict went on, 



