SoUVENIR-CHARTERS TOWERS, 1872 TO JULY, 1950 Page 9 IN IT'S HEY-DAY-SOME INTERESTING FACTS BUSINESS went on as usual even on Saturday mghts and what mghts they were, more particularly if Saturday night happened to be a bright moonlight night, it was something not easily for­gotten. "The miners night", for all the week he has been hammering away in the darkness of the night at the d,rill held by his chum, and lighted by a flick­ering candle, and thanks to good ventila­tion and to plenty of offiicial inspectionl his eight hours of toil were spent as pleasantly and profitably as he himself could wish. Most of the miners came from England and the wages they re­ceived on the Towers field were twice or three times as much as they were earning back in the Old Country. In a big per­centage of cases the miner and his family lived in a house which he erected himself and in many cases the good wife helped with the building of their "mansion." He could live on 30/- a week, clothe and feed his wife and family and the best of meat being procurable at about two pence per pound, thrived on .the best of meat at least three times a day. He could give his child,ren a good education and living conditions generally were much better than in any of the mining villages at home. It is a recognised fact that although the miners earned £3 to £3/10/- per week and could live on £1/10/- per week, and in that case would be able to spend £1 or £1/10/- per week on drink, they did not do so, because in many cases at least half of his pay went into mining speculations. So that the earning of a good income did not mean increased drinking The miner felt independent and had a good deal of self respect. At this time Mosman Street was really the main street tog.ether with Gill Street, but if the honour of being the main street was judged by the number of hotels, Mosman Street must easily have been proclaimed the leading ,street for at this time it alone could boast of at least fourteen liquor places The fact that the old stock exchange, and Brokers Offices also were situated along this busy street meant that on a Saturday night it became a popular meeting place for the miners. It could be said, that, for about three parts of the miners the main object of the Saturday night was to get together and discuss matters and chat with his old mates whom he would only see on such nights and these get togethers would necessitate a beer or two just as a matter of ceremony. On this night the miners would come out in force. They would stand in groups usually wearing moleskin trousers and flannel shirts, with a sash around the middle, and a slouch hat. It would be impossible to find such a large gather­ing of men with so few men under the influence of liquor. There was practi­cally no crime in the Towers in the early days almost every man worked for a living and there was no poverty. If any crimes took place it was usually the wvork of undesirables from the south. The takings on a Saturday night must have been enormous. The miners wives usually did their own shopping by them­selves in order to indulge in a little gos­sip after all the necessities had been pur­chased. This also allowed the miner to indulge in his spot of yarning and a glass of beer with his chum. There were a large number brokers operating and according to re­ports this broking was done pretty fairly at first, but eventually a sort of ring was formed with the idea of work­ing together, more or less, to each others mutual benefit as far as the general public was concerned There were some brokers who were not in the ring. In many cases the prices advertised in the papers were much lower than the actual market. Many stories are told of the gutter broker who, not registered in any way, would enter into deals, which would nearly always turn out to the disadvan­tage of the client. The publi,c generally would suffer considerably at the hands of this type of commission agent. of