KIMBERLEY GOLD-FIELDS.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1887, 22 September 1886, Page 2

KIMBERLEY GOLD-FIELDS.

Mr John Jackson, of Stoneetead, in a latter to bis parents dated August 1, gives a capital description of the journey across fiom Wellington to Derby in the steamship Triumph. On one occasion at dinner time the vessel gave a lurch and there was a general smash up of crockery all round ; so great was the destruction that the many passengers bad to be satisfied for the rest of the voyage in using pickle bottles, jam and preserved meat tins and other tin utensils for drinking vessels, fiis party lost about 4001bs of flour on the voyage, and the probability is that the whole company of shipmates were living at their expense. One party, be says, lost nearly £3OO worth of stores either on boatd or in landing. He speaks of Derby as a rather pretty little place and built on a sandy sort of toil, which looks like a mixture of sawdust and sand, and is very loose. Derby proper is about three miles from the sea; it has four hotels and two more are being built about as large as Fabian’s in Greytowo, There are several boarding houses and shops, and a few private houses. The houses are mostly built of corrugated iron with wooden frames. Provisions are not so dear as you would suppose ; grog is Cd the glass, jam Od par lb, mutton Bd, sugar 6d, tea from 2s to 4s, preserved meat Is, potatoes 25s per cwt, flour 225. The Government will not sell any land, and those who have laud are asking £2OO for a quarter of an acre. The ant hills are wonderful sights, and put one in mind of a pile of bricks. are hundreds of them in Derby, and from one foot up to 10 feet high, and about 8 feet in diameter. The trees are mostly gums, acacias, and bottle trees—the latter being in shape of a lemonade bottle. I have seen some 7 feet in diameter and only 20 feet high ; the wood is similar to the cabbage tree. I saw about a dozen blacks the other day; they are without a doubt a miserable looking lot of people. The people here take little or no interest in the goldfield; in fact New Zealand seemi to have had the gold fever more than those living in Derby. Most of the big finds which have been reported in New Zealand are nut heard of here. We intend making a start up to the goldfield to morrow, and if there is nothing to be got we will start back at once. A lot of men have arrived here from Freemantie since we landed. Derby is one sea of tents. A lot of diggers left here for the Cambridge Gulf, which is 500 miles distant. Report says that 2000 men have landed at the Gulf during the last two months, and I believe the reports we read of in New Zealand came from there. 1 would not advise anyone to come at present, until more reliable information comes from the field All our party were sea sick with the exception of Jones and myself. There are auy amount of black crows and different kinds of birds here. luw a flock of flying foxes the other night, which reached nearly five miles long. The thermometer was at 85 in the shade the other day; at present it is as hot here as it is in midsummer in New Zealand. The hottest part of the day is from seven o’clock in the morning till midday; then it begius to get cooler. The nights are about as hot as an October night in Wellington. If we wanted to aell our horsea we could get £SO each for them. 1 would advise no one to bring horses here lor sale, as they might lose the half of them on the voyage.