IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM THE GOLD FIELDS AT PORT CURTIS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume VII, Issue 327, 6 November 1858, Page 3

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM THE GOLD FIELDS AT PORT CURTIS.

Rumours were current in the city yesterday afternoon of important intelligence having been received by the Government relative to the gold-fields at Port Curtis. Upon enquiry, we find that the facts

are those ; Information has been commu- i nicated tojthe Government, not officially, ■ and to other parties, that the area of the i Northern gold-fields is much larger than : was anticipated. The field has been ex- 1 amined from the diggings, near Rockhampton, and the gold-bearing ground extends, or is said to extend, to Broad Sound, a distance of fifty miles. The same informant, who' as an'appointment on the dig- : gings, states that there are 600 men at : work, and all doing well We strictly guard our readerß from receiving this information as positively authentic, or as being derived from official sources, which would convey any such ijnpression. We have always been courteously fa-, vored by fjhe Government with the reports from the gold-fields, and have no doubt that any official intelligence which can be prudently published, we shall be able to obtain ; and whether good or bad, we shall at once lay it before our readers. There are all sorts of conflicting reports relative to the Fitzroy Diggings. From a private and well informed source we (New Zealander)\\a,\e been permitted to extract as follows : — The excitement to these Gold Fields continued with unabated Fury, until Monday last, when the City of Sydney steamer arrived, bringing back a number of would be diggers who, having heard rumours of there being no gold, turned tail without ever visiting the diggings and judging for themselves. This unexpected return caused a thorough damper upon the whole affair, and numbers of tickets were sold for ss. each which, by the way, were readily bought up by the diggers who are determined to give the new fields a fair trial. In contrast to this, we learn from the Sydney Herald of the 9th inst. that more than 45 vessels had sailed from Sydney for the Fitzroy Diggings. Those vessels varied from 80 to 100 tons burthen, 3233 persons had left Sydney, and the vessels then on the berth were calculated to carry 1500 more. Sailing ships, steamers, and all sorts of vessels were being laid on and continued to fill up for the Fitzroy — the offices of the agents being beset by crowds of applicants for passages. Sydney is certainly destined to be unlucky in the matter of mail communication. By the telegram received yesterday we learn tha,t the Emeu, which has the English August mails on board, had not arrived at Melbourne at noon on Thursday, 7th inst. She cannot possibly, therefore, reach Sydney before Sunday night, and the homeward mail, per Victoria, closes to-day. Our merchants, therefore, must make up their correspondence in ignorance of the advices that are on the way. The Supplementary mail does not leave till Tuesday evening ; and this affords a faint hope that the Emeu may yet turn up in time to admit of replies to its mail ; but we dare ' not be sanguine as we have been so accustomed to disappointments. The delay this month is the more inconvenient in consequence of the n on -arrival of the mails of the previous month. Two successive mails with their freights, their advices, and their remittances, are overdue. Nothing has been received from Fngland since June, except a few scraps of intelligence ■ picked up from odd newspapers brought by sailing vessels. The Home Government, with laudable intentions, has temporarily kept up the steam service, pending the making of a new contract ; but, as it has turned out, this colony at least would have been better off if it had depended on sailing vessels. We do/ not feel disposed to impute blame to any one for this misfortune, for it has probably arisen from causes which none of those in authority could control, but it is none the less inconvenient on that account. The Company, in carrying on the service temporarily could but keep the established machinery going, and the vessels that have disappointed us are the two most reliable in the service. What has become of the Australasian we cannot tell. She may have run ashore or met with some accident to her machinery. The last we heard of her was that she left Aden on her way to Suez all right, but seven days behind her time. Whether she reached Suez withoutaccident, or whether she has been crippled by any misadventure on her return passage we know not. The Emeu made such a fine run last time, that great expectations were raised as to her punctual appearance. Her able commander will doubtless do all that can be done, but the fates seem this time to be against him. He may have been detained rendering assistance to the Aus-

tralasian, or he may have had to contend with heavy weather. One inconvenience of the non-appearance of the Australasian is that our homeward mails must once more be entrusted to the Victoria, and that witli but comparatively little chance of their being delivered with punctuality. This vessel was built for quite a different service, to that in which she is now employed, and is not adapted to perform so trying a journey as that from Sydney to Suez and back, at the rate of speed, required. On her last trip she was urged forward as fast as possible, but the machinery gave way under the pressure. She has been submitted to a thorough overhaul while she has been lying in Port Jackson, and made sea worthy in every particular, yet it is more than we can expect that she will make headway successfully against trade winds and monsoons, and be back at the time appointed. But she is the only vessel available, and the Company's superihtendent had no option but to send her. We wait with some anxiety to hear what steps have been taken in London with regard to issuing of tenders for a fresh mail contract. Whatever company may undertake to manage the Suez route, will require some months to get it in efficient working order ; but we do hope that it will attain, that stage at -last. And as a check against the subsequent irregularities, we hope that before many more months elapse, an equally efficient Panama service will be in operation. Till then we can but wait in patience and endure.