This page has been validated.
NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND.
145
gold, and disappointment was the fate of nearly all. The misdirected enthusiasm of the crowd soon exhausted the few pockets already discovered, and then spent itself aimlessly in prodding the earth in various directions until its means of subsistence were exhausted. The inevitable reaction set in, and, for a time, numbers of these would-be diggers hung around the seaport settlements disconsolate. But soon necessity started them on other pursuits, and, as farm labourers, and in some cases as land proprietors on their own account, the majority of them found employment more steady and remunerative, though per-
