Page:Notes on New Zealand (1892).pdf/165

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NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND.
155

worked-out gold fields, where they turn over and pick amongst the wash dirt and earth heaps which have already been panned out and abandoned by the legitimate diggers. They do over again all that the diggers have done already, and often make good finds in this way. Chinamen are to be seen hanging around the gold fields ostensibly for the purpose of cultivating vegetables, doing washing, etc., for the diggers, but in reality they are waiting until the latter depart, and they can gather up their leavings.

The practice, however, of re-working an abandoned gold claim is not always con-