The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 177, 24 February 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1868.

The latest news from Queensland seems to have turned every body's bead, and it forms the sole topic of conversation to the exclusion of every other—weather included. Both storekeepers and residents look glum, and an uneasiness pervades the community that does not augur well for the settlement and development of this neighborhood, and what is the reason of it ? But it appears that the uneasiness is not confined to Westport, for according to the latest accounts from Hokitika, hundreds of miners were awaiting impatiently the departure of vessels for Queensland. It would be useless to reason with men whose minds are already made up on the subject of a rush, and perhaps the wisest thing they can do is to visit the locality and be disappointed. Newspapers are made to bear the brunt of a good many things ; but this rush to Queensland cannot be put down to them. The latest news from Melbourne or Sydney mention nothing of any importance to warrant a rus\; nor do we find that it is creating any sensation in either of those two large centres of population. Nor does it seem to attract much attention in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. This rush is undoubtedly what is called a " private letter rush ;" and of all rushes, a " private letter rush " is the most unreliable, for nobody knows from whence the news springs. It is just possible that somebody may have had a letter from Queensland giving an account of the diggings at Gympie Creek, which has now been worked for some months, —the writer of it little dreaming the mischief he was occasioning. The letter may have stated that the diggings were successful, and this reaching the hands of miners who were either worked or " duffered " out, caused them to turn their faces towards the new land—the farther away the better. Miners as a rule are sanguine, and providing the original holder of the letter merely conveyed the general tenor of his letter to his mate, there can be no doubt but that in travelling it did not lose anything, and when news regarding a new rush or diggings is once set in motion, the rate at which it travels is hardly conceivable. It matters not whoever may take the trouble contradict the statement, they are not believed, and the rush thus set afloat soon becomes a mania—very often only too soon repented of. In the instance to which we have alluded, a telegram was received by Mr White of the P.N.Z. and A.R.M. Company, bearing out to a certain extent these flying rumors, but it seems strange that this news is not borne out by the nawspapers. In our issue of Saturday we gave Mr White's letter and a leading article from the Hokitika Evening Star descriptive of the country, which ran as follows : " And we venture to affirm that ont of every fifty men who proceed to those diggings ten will die miserably within twelve months of their first touching the shores of the Wide Bay district. The Maryborough diggings are situated in about twentyfive degrees of South Latitude. It is intensely hot and arid during the summer months ; during the winter quarter there is nothing but a succession of tropical downpours, when the atmosphere is extremely humid with the wind blowing from the interior it is impregnated with death - destroying vapors which are brought from the mafshlands which abound a little in from the sea-board. In summer men are carried off with dreadful suddenness by fevers ; in winter they suffer the agonies of camp and agues. The portion of Queensland to which we are referring swarms with insect life, which has the effect of depriving human existence of any pleasurable sensations ; the filthiest of creeping animals are here found ; also the most venemous of snakes and the most stunted of vegetation." Such are some of the disadvantages that miners will have to labor under who visit this new El Dorado.