Port Darwin Gold-field.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 208, 4 November 1873, Page 7

Port Darwin Gold-field.

We extract the following in reference to the above gold-fied from the D&ily Times : The Government mining regulations contained the assurance that its object was to open the country " to bona fide gold-miners on liberal terms" ; but here again, the most, favourable ground was taken up for Adelaide speculators, by prospecting companies, long before the bona fide miner could possibly know anything of the opportunity ; and consequently, if he comes here it must be as a wages man, and without any expectation of securing favourable ground for himself. Port Darwin may be reached by steamer in about three weeks, and th'O passage costs about £26. The Yam Creek is about 100 miles up-country. In Palmerston, the Port township, stores are moderately abundant and cheap; but of accommodation, higher up, there is but littie ; and self-provision in both shelter and food for any individual making the venture on his own account is indispensable. Numerous crushing machines are in course of erection, and if all continues well some of them may be in operation in the early part of the year ; but up to the present, although the field has been in a way under work for a year, I do not think 500 ozs. of gold has resulted from it. Each company has its small mound of stone grubbed from the surface, or a few feet of sinking, and of course there is the usual amount of wild prophecy as to their ** enormous production" ; but any of the tests, except of the Princess Louise stuff—and they have not been many—so far made have not justified their '' great expectations." It may be said with safety that the general opinion of o\d miners fresh from New Zealand aad Victoria is not favourable to the quarts

specimens so far produced. The climate for the pastthree months has been ordinarily mild, and yet numbers of old seasoned diggers have been stricken down with ague and fever, no doubt produced by exposure • and sudden changes of climate; and no later than last week a vessel was telegraphed to have left Port Darwin with forty-five returned diggers for Newcastle, ~ The South Australian Government is particularly economic in its expenditure on the Territory ; indeed it seems to have a foreshadowing of its loss at no distant date, and on each discussion of supplies in the legislature, one may observe a lamentable desire to shelve the question of even the most necessary supplies. No proper provision has been made for the coming wet season, which will endure until about March, and must bring with it to unprepared constitutions tropical malaria in its worst forms. There is neither hospital nor sanatorium, and as yet medical aid is mext to not being there at all. No ifood is produced by the settlement, and the popular ion depends wholly on the storekeepers for supplies from Adelaide. There can be no doubt that, however rich the gold claims now in the grasp of the Colonists under leases may turn out, they will be wholly valueless to them except with the aid of the experienced miners of the adjoining Colonies ; and, perhaps, as following the law of compensation, their position is not to be regretted, A strong and violent feeling provails against immigration, and new comers are looked upon with the sourest possible favour and unexceptional inhospitality. Apart from gold, which may, or may not, turn out a large resource, the Northern Territory affords rare opportunities. for the successful cultivation of nearly all tropical and semi-tropical produce, such as sugar, cotton, tea, rice, arrowroot—the genuine tree—castor oil, the Chinese grass plant, and numerous others ; and as the country is vast and fertile we may hope to see an extensive settlement of persons inured to tropical climates, , and by-and-bye, perhaps, the establishment : of the Territory as a distinct Colony. A man of small capital may obtain the fee simple of any area of land up to 10,000 acres at 7s. 6d. : an acre on reasonable terms, or may lease for ; ten years for the cultivation of tropical pro- • duce, at 6d. per acre, any sized lot from 320 < to 1280 acres. Perhaps for this description ! of faming no settled Colony offers equal ad- . vantages to joint stock enterprise.