Austral English Part 73

Duffer, n. a cattle stealer, i.q. Cattle-duffer (q.v.).

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Colonial Reformer,' c. xxv. p. 352:

"What's a little money ... if your children grow up duffers and planters?"

Duffer2, n. a claim on a mine which turns out unproductive, called also shicer (q.v.). [This is only a special application of the slang English, duffer, an incapable person, or a failure. Old English Daffe, a fool]

1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 193:

"It was a terrible duffer anyhow, every ounce of gold got from it cost L 20 I'll swear."

1864. J Rogers, `New Rush,' p. 55:

"Tho' duffers are so common And golden gutters rare, The mining sons of woman Can much ill fortune bear."

1873. A.Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 291:

"A shaft sunk without any produce from it is a duffer... .

But of these excavations the majority were duffers. It is the duffering part of the business which makes it all so sad.So much work is done from which there is positively no return."

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 266:

"The place is then declared to be a `duffer,' and abandoned, except by a few fanatics, who stick there for months and years."

1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 21, p. 1014:

"Another duffer! Rank as ever was bottomed! Seventy-five feet hard delving and not a colour!"

Duffer out, v. A mine is said to duffer out, when it has ceased to be productive.

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 279:

"He then reported to the shareholders that the lode had `duffered out,' and that it was useless to continue working."

1889. Cassell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iv. p. 73:

"Cloncurry has, to use the mining parlance, duffered out."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Miner's Right,' c. vi. p. 58:

"`So you're duffered out again, Harry,' she said."

Dugong Oil, n. an oil obtained in Australia, from Halicore dugong, Gmel., by boiling the superficial fat. A substitute for cod-liver oil. The dugongs are a genus of marine mammals in the order Sirenia.

H. dugong inhabits the waters of North and North-east Australia, the southern shores of Asia, and the east coast of Africa. The word is Malay.

Dug-out, n. a name imported into New Zealand from America, but the common name for an ordinary Maori canoe.

Duke Willy, n. See Whistling Dick.

Dummy, n. (1) In Australia, when land was thrown open for selection (q.v.), the squatters who had previously the use of the land suffered. Each squatter exercised his own right of selection. Many a one also induced others to select nominally for themselves, really for the squatter. Such selector was called a dummy. The law then required the selector to swear that he was selecting the land for his own use and benefit. Some of the dummies did not hesitate to commit perjury. Dictionaries give "dummy, adj. fictitious or sham." The Australian noun is an extension of this idea. Webster gives "(drama) one who plays a merely nominal part in any action, sham character."

This brings us near to the original dumby, from dumb, which is radically akin to German dumm, stupid.

1866. D. Rogerson, `Poetical Works, p. 23:

"The good selectors got most of the land, The dummies being afraid to stand."

1866. H. Simcox, `Rustic Rambles, p. 21:

"See the dummies and the mediums, Bagmen, swagmen, hastening down."

1872. A. McFarland, `Illawarra and Manaro,' p. 125:

"Since free selection was introduced, a good many of the squatters (they say, in self-defence) have, in turn, availed themselves of it, to secure `the eyes' or water-holes of the country, so far as they could by means of `dummies,' and other blinds."

1879. R. Niven, `Fraser's Magazine,' April, p. 516:

"This was the, in the colony, well-known `dummy' system. Its nature may be explained in a moment. It was simply a swindling transaction between the squatter on the one hand and some wretched fellow on the other, often a labourer in the employment of the squatter, in which the former for a consideration induced the latter to personate the character of a free selector, to acquire from the State, for the purpose of transferring to himself, the land he most coveted out of that thrown open for selection adjoining his own property."

1892. `Scribner's Magazine,' Feb. p. 140:

"By this device the squatter himself, all the members of the family, his servants, shepherds, boundary-riders, station-hands and rabbiters, each registered a section, the dummies duly handing their `selection' over to the original holder for a slight consideration."

(2) Colloquial name for the grip-car of the Melbourne trams.

Originally the grip-car was not intended to carry passengers: hence the name.

1893. `The Herald' (Melbourne), p. 5, col. 5:

"Linked to the car proper is what is termed a dummy."

1897. `The Argus,' Jan. 2, p. 7, col. 5:

"But on the tramcar, matters were much worse. The front seat of the dummy was occupied by a young Tasmanian lady and her cousin, and, while one portion of the cart struck her a terrible blow on the body, the shaft pinned her by the neck against the front stanchion of the dummy."

Dummy, v. to obtain land in the way above described.

1873. A.Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. vi. p. 101:

"Each partner in the run has purchased his ten thousand, and there have been many Mrs. Harrises. The Mrs. Harris system is generally called dummying--putting up a non-existent free-selector--and is illegal. But I believe no one will deny that it has been carried to a great extent."

1896. `The Champion' (Melbourne), Jan. 11:

"The verb `to dummy' and the noun `dummyism' are purely Australian, quotations to illustrate the use of which can be obtained from `Hansard,' the daily papers, and such works as Epps' monograph on the `Land Tenure Systems of Australasia.'"

Dummyism, n. obtaining land by misrepresentation. See Dummy, n.

1875. `The Spectator' (Melbourne), June 19, p. 8, col. 2:

"`Larrikinism' was used as a synonym for `blackguardism,'

and `dummyism' for perjury."