KIMBERLY GOLD-FIELDS.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1891, 1 October 1886, Page 2

KIMBERLY GOLD-FIELDS.

A GLOOMY PICTURE. The diggers who returned to Melbourne in the Catterthun all join in giving Kimberley a very bad name. Deserted drayi, spring carts, and waggons, are to be picked up along the track, and hundreds of horse* have perished, while bodies of men who died in the attempt to reach the field are strewn on the wayside. The men allege that the country is swarming with reefs of a sort, bat, unfortunately, not one of them is gold bearing. A little gold was found in Hall's creek amounting, in the aggregate, to 3dwt, bat that waa not obtained till after days of almost fruitless work. One party of three, who bad been working at Hall’s Creek for about a month, had succeeded in obtaining about four ounces of gold, but that was only after working consi lerably longer than the recognised eight hours. The men allege most positively that the country cannot be gold bearing, as alleged, only the colour being obtainable. A party who have just returned, stated most positively that they had searched the entire Kimberley district carefully, and gold in any payable quantity does not exist there. On the other baud, a correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald at Cossack (Western Australia) telegraphs that a number of men who have come in for provisions state that all the miners are finding payable gold. A good quantity of gold reached Derby, but uot sufficient to wairant a continued rush until the field is thoroughly tes'ed. Another cortespoudeut ol ihe mini: tournal, telegraphing tram M'l’iiee’s Creek, says ; At Elvira River 1 had an interview with Samuel Johnston, who hj i been on the field (which embraces an m a ol some hundred d mie;)h tween soeu aid i igiit Healths, lie slated that In , with foui others, eamii oi.'iluinl fnin Pint Darwin, with a

thoroughly complete oiiilit. His party commence i prospecting uiiectly they struck th* Old linn, ami they h:,\e laeu hard at it ever simw. A» they have • xpiiitnted both wet and diy .-.i ic ons .1 ..nslon ought to be abl* to speak with authoiity. lie had no hesitation m piouonncing the diggings a failure. 1 read to him numerous accounts which Lad appealed in the papers in Sydney and th* oilier colonies giving details of large find* of gold made, and sis > of the mineral wealth of the distuct, and he immediately explained that they were " shamefully, wicked, and ci nelly exaggerated.'’ “ What, 1 ' Said Johnston, “is to become ol thousands of poor men who, you tell mo, are on Die way ’

There is not sufficient alluvial ground in the country to give a hundred mm rations, so that thousands must starve, or the Western Australian Government tuu-t bo compelled to give them work. 1 have been n ailv to a;i the diggings in the colony during twenty years, and I. positively asseit these whit cause greater misery than all Hie others pu

■together." 1 A great number oi men (tuliv Ina uty t have ■ been mining for wicks past. They went out 1 prospecting m patties of two un i three, with | provisions sufficient to last only a few days, i They have never been beard of since, and it is feared they have either lust themselves I and pen-lied in the bash, or been murdered by tbe blades. These blacks have stticked the diggers in the field more than ones, and speared several of them, two fatally, and they ore threatening tbe miners at night by lighting huge fires, to gather tbs tribes. They are perfectly wild, and also naked, and it is said they ore cannibals. Thirteen men have been lost on tbe Darby track, and their cloths* have been seen on " darkies. ” Post Dab win, September 88. Official information has been received from Derby that twelve pounds of gold has arrived there under eeoort front the Kimberley goldfield. Many of tbe digger* who bsv* returned from the fields have been disappoints i because they arrived there without being properly equipped. Those, however, now ou i the field m* reported to be earning moc* tbM