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Where conflicts among ItaUan speakers drew in members of the broader
community, and 'viUage law' could not be called upon to settle or sanction, matters
were often resolved with police interference. Generally Umited to minor Utigations
over mining rights, land, water or straying animals, the police often played a useful and
necessary role. Despite this, many Italian speakers retained a traditional hostUity to
the law, reinforced through what they perceived as an overly harsh British justice
system. Unlike their Irish neighbours, none of the ItaUan famiUes around Daylesford
allowed their sons to become poUcemen. Gioachimo Respini, an immigrant from
Cevio, summed up the feelings of many compatriots when he wrote:
In questa terra la giustizia, come gia saprete, e esercitata dagli
inglesi, e melto severa, e spedita; il lore codice dope il giudizie del
Commissarie nen permette altre appellazioni che ad un tribunale
supremo. L'indole generate di questo popolo inglese e molto rozza,
e vendicativa e guai a colui che non sa farsi temere, giurane il false
e vi cacciano via dal luogo eve fatte oro."
Many also resented the actions of the British settlers whom they perceived as
capitalising on their misfortune; when (as often happened) water filled the mines and
claims had to be abandoned, it was generally the EngUsh, with their pumps and horses,
who were then able to take the mines over. Forsaking their claims, the Italian speakers
were left to faU further into debt. While some historians have asserted that serious
disputes were few at Jim Crow ~ when the first newspaper reporter arrived at the
mines in 1855 and asked for the Police Camp, he was reportedly told that no such
place existed and that the diggers 'just tossed up to settle any disputes''* ~ the large
ethnic populations ensured a degree of conflict. Those most poorly treated were,
without doubt, the Chinese, of whom up to 40,000 were working on the various
mining sites of the colony by 1857."
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