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Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1744, 7 March 1874, Page 2

Those who have been bitten with the desire to rush to the Palmer river diggings had better think twice before they set off. The rush, we are told by our Australian telegrams, has collapsed ; the diggings have turned out a failure, and the miners are in terrible plight from want of provisions and the attacks of the aboriginal population. We should therefore caution the miners of this district against leaving the healthy and genial climate of New Zealand and the certainty of earning fair wages for the drawbacks of a tropical climate, no food, and the necessity of constant watchfulness against savage attacks, without even the compensation of gold. Whilst on this subject we may instance a fact which came under our notice a few days ago. A letter was recently received here from a former wellknown resident on the Grey, in which he spoke in the most extravagant terms of the prosperity of the Palmer diggings, how well he was getting on and so on, and urging his old chums to go over without delay. Singularly enough it was not considered worth consideration by the greedy readers of this good news that the writer, who bore the character of being a good husband and father, had not sent a shilling for his wife and family, who are here depending upon the hard industry of the former for their daily bread. We have no doubt that the sanguine writer had no money to send, and that his fervid descriptions were mostly imaginary.