THE GOLD COUNTRY IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 486, 28 June 1851, Page 78

THE GOLD COUNTRY IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

The . colonial papers received by the Comet, are filled with accounts of gold discoveries, imaginary and real, and with the doings at the diggings near Bathurst. In the midst of the many contradictory statements that have appeared, is is difficult to arrive at the truth, but it would seem that the success of the gold-seekers varies considerably, for while some few have been so fortunate ai to realize considerable gains, others have had but very indifferent success. The precious metal, as fast as it is obtained, is forwarded *to Sydney, and shipments to the amount of £6,000 or £7,000 have been made to England. The Bathurst Free Press furnishes the following items of intelligence —

" The throng] by the Sydney road to the diggings continues unabated, the numbers by that route alone amounting to not less than 250 to 300 daily, most of them accompanied with carts and teams containing their luggage. On Wednesday 314 men passed through Kelso to Bathurst, and about 100 conveyances of one description or another. A gentleman informed us that on coming towards Bathurst the other morning he counted 85 teams and upwards of 200 men camped at Mary's Lane, en route for Ophir, and a friend states that he met a small troop of Sydney exquisites at King's Plains, looking bright in spurs, kid gloves, and opera ties, and smelling iweet in hair oil and Eau de Cologne. Mr. Joseph West who has just returned from the metropolis, saw 168; drays and 1,117 men between Sydney, and the foot of Mount Victoria. Drs. Rutter and Gwynn, from Paramatta, he says, are on the road for the (diggings with a locomotive hospital consisting of a number of tents and 25 stretchers, and (he added with a broad grin) 50 coffins filled with, flour. Mr. West pledges himself to the truth of all previous particulars, but generously leaves the last piece of intelligence to be swallowed or not as our readers choose. It is to be hoped for their own sakes that Drs. Rutter and Gwynn's outfit includes digging implements, and that these gentlemen can adapt themselves to circumstances, and if need be, turn miners, as up to our last advices not a single caie of sickness, more serious than a cough or a cold had occurred. The tents and stretchers may prove a good spec, but for the good of the inhabitants of Ophir, we wish that Mr. West's imaginary coffins may remain deposited in that portion of his cranium known as the organ of ideality, and as for lancets, gallipots, purgatives and plasters, that they may be things of the distant future. On Thursday Captain Battye arrived in town with nine mounted troopers. Mr. Maher's house, in Paper-street, has been rented as barracks for toeir accommodation. The miners still continue to pay their license fees peaceably. Every description of labour is plentiful. A sheepholder of undoubted veracity informed us yesterday that he had hired shepherds at the mines, at the usual rate of wages, but if disposed, he could have got them for £14 per annum. Several employers of labour in town say that they are daily importuned for situations by unsuccessful miners. One thing appears certain, that unless auriferous discoveries be made in other places, the labour market of this district will be supplied at the expense of our neighbours. We have heard from good authority, of forty to fifty Sydney people returning homewards during the last few days disappointed. But form the wretched equipment and personal unfitness for gold digging of large numbers, this was to be expected. Report says that a gold field exists near Mcl bourne.