Pat O'CONNOR
The licence hunt (1954)
from the Eureka 1854 - 1954 series 1954
Linocut
15.2 x 20.2cm
Purchased, 1954.

The digger hunts, as the police termed them, were of daily occurence. The method was: A strong armed force of police would set out from Camp Hill, and would sally over the diggings, demanding of every man to produce his licence. A failure, or a refusal to do so, meant immediate arrest with uneccesary violence. One handcuff was attached to the victim's right wrist, the other to the ring-bolt in the trooper's saddle, and a smart move was made to the police camp. If the prisoner objected to entertaining his brutal captor by a trotting match with his horse, the reply was to put the steed into a canter; it was make the pace or go down.

MONTY MILLER, a veteran of Eureka, in an unpublished Mss.

Reproduced from printed text accompanying the print portfolio Popular Print Series: A Folio of (mainly) lino-cuts, by Various Artists. The folio is the work of ten artists, produced by the Melbourne Popular Art Group and pays tribute to a great occassion in our history - the stand of the Ballarat miners in the Eureka Stockade.