THE PALMER.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1859, 21 July 1874, Page 2

THE PALMER.

[to the editor.] Sir, — As I am travelling through this country and New South Wales, I have had an opportunity of witnessing something that has been very hurtful to my feelings and also f rightful. for., anyone to behold, and having had, and experienced pleasing. and happy times oncthe West Coast of New Zealand, "especially in Greymouth," I thought I could noTspend an hour or two better than writing these few lines to you, trusting that it might have a beneficial effect in more ways than one, and also prevent some of your population from rushing away from where they are* doing well, to a place where they are sure to experience misery and. privation— l allude to the diggers,: for if anyone were to Bee what is occurring in this country, and behold what I did with my own eyes last Tuesday, the 16th inst., they could not possibly but be disgusted, not only with the people who govern this country, but also with the Colony 'itself . .A steamer belonging to the A. S.N. Company, named the Leichardt, arrived in Brisbane from Cooktown last Tuesday, with about. 6oo diggers, &c, arid unfortunately about 70 of them r weriß unable to pay their passage, determined, it appears, that once on board the vessel at Cooktown, "or wherever they had a chance of embarking," to face anything rather than scay at the risk of their lives. When they arrived, a number of these men .vyiere .taken to .the lock-up and; sentenced' to fourteen days, and I assure you the poor fellows were more fit (and ought to have been placed in a comfortable bed and receive proper nourishment) to be in the Hospital, to keep them from dying from the dreadful disease to which they had been subjected, in consequence of the climate they had been to and the bad food they had been obliged to consume— their appearance I ! cannot ' possibly describe — emaciated faces, glassy eyes, and their constitutions racked ; and. as they were walking "through the streets young men appeared to be old and fit ior nothing. • ' U The description that I had from s<me I of the diggers was really appalling in the extreme ; the manner and means which they had to resort to obtain gold,the kind of food they had to put up with, and the enormous expense they were put to get it. I have been told from gentlemen on whom I can place the greatest reliance, that fine men are walking about on the Palmer stricken with this fever, and they look more like lunatics than'tialf the people who are in the lunatic asylums. At any rate I don't want to witness another, sight like that of last Tuesday. I am also told that dead carcases of horses and bullocks, of anything else that happens to be lying about on the roads, have been freely consumed by men who have been reduced to starvation. : £*? I have written this to you ; thinking, as I said before, it might prove beneficial to many, and also that you would -possibly take some notice of it in your -paper. You are at liberty to use. ,my name in the matter, for what I have said in this I assure you is not overdrawn in the slightest, rather uuder in my and according to what I have heard. -^Ybu can remember me to all inquiring friends, hoping that the Grey is as good a 6 jever, and everyone is in a flourishing 'condition. ; lam, &c, . . . .■ . <3>^romley.. Ipswich, Queensland, June 18.r ■ „,'