THE KIMBERLEY GOLDFIELDS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 7173, 17 September 1886, Page 4

THE KIMBERLEY GOLDFIELDS.

A miner from Kimherlty writes: — Iwa3 atFort-ht Creek and lieudigo, and then in New Zealand, from the first find at Gabriel's Gully. I was induced to go to Western Aiibtralia by what I read in the imports on the Kimberley goldfields which' were made to the Government olliciais of' Western Australia. Nothing else led mo to go there, nnd I say bow that thoße reports aie false and misleading. It seems to me that they have been circulated by persons interested in the getting up of a biir rush to Western Australia, with the object of attracting population and money into that colon)-. When I reached Wyndham, I found men there who had returned from ihe field, and they pronounced it a failure. I found too that there was no bank at Wyndham, and I knew that if there was any quantity of gold about there would be a bank. 1 got fiOin bad to ■worse, and after hearing all that the men ■who had worked on the field had to say, I decided that there was no payable gold there, and that it would be folly i'or me or any other man to go up there. So I have come back to Melbourne on my way home to Nesv Zialand. The trip will cost me about £50 by the time I reach New Zealand, but many men have lost a good deal more than that. A Freemantle pap< has stated that only men without means are returning from the field. That is fulse. 1 and others who huve returned have iiK'uns, but I don't believe in throwing more good money away. There are some 300 men at Wyndham anxious to get away irom Wea' m Australia, but many of them arc hard up, 1 ig lost their money. What the) will do Ido noc know. They have asked the Go, ■eminent olliciala to start rel'ef works, but the Government only offer them tucker, without wages, by way of \. y i'or any work limy may do, except at the jelty, wheie tlneo or four men earn 1&. or Is. Cd. an hour for a lew hourn', a day. La f-ict things at W yndhaui nva at a pretty pasd. Not only arc maay of the men luid up, but ihty have to pay even i'or drinking water. I paid sixpence a bucket for it onu week. Food is at reasonable piice, but then EOine of the men have not ujoncy to pmchaso it. 1 did not uieet one man \\ no said payable gold was now to be found at Kimberley, the three gullies where it existed having been worked out. If more gold is found it will, in my opinion, be found in a belt of country be)ond the prebent field." The whole of the returned in- n unite in advising sensible men not to go to Kimberley.

At Uio Aldington Yards, Canterbury, a fewdajH a^o, v remaikuble ilhiHliation was stoa ol tho thorough soaking given' by thu lalo miriH. A thickly ".vuolled fat crossbred wether presenting ratlier a curious appearance, the w 00l on its back was opened out, mid was found to contain v tinii growth of oata. the ee(d or. wliich had fallen on its back and f-p routed there, owing to the ■weinesa ol the wool, to the lv gth of about an inch. '• I beg your pardon, sir," said Mr. Swell, to a friend with whom ho w.ih holding v healed argument, '• 1 beg your pardon, air— l ou-ht to understand thia matter better tli-m you. I am a graduate of two collegia, sir." "You remind me," replied liio lriund, "very much of a calf U)} lather iihuil to own who had luilk from two i;onvs ll Wh.) , how was that ?" "Ho was a very large calf:." A German critic thus distinguishes between ridicule, wit, iiony aud humor: "Uidiculc is the wit of <i blupici or vulgar person, wit the riiliculc of a buperior intellect or a man of the world, ircmy the wit ot a thinker, and humor the; irony of a poet. Kidieul" ib like it blow with lhi> fist, wit like tin prick or." a needle, iron) liUe the sting of a thorn, aud humor tho J plaster which heals nil these wounds." EaHtorn Youns; Lady (to western youns< man)—" Wo wore disappointed in not fUll.i'U cards to bihUi'h weddinjr, },d ili.(/.\. \V n ih iv no c.i.i , ?" Mi. lin /. — '• W ' - 'r, hihti rdi'iii't p,{^ mijj h.i. r ' i i.i i iiii.- i.v bob limit ptter the minister got away."