PORT DARWIN GOLD-FIELD

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 212, 2 December 1873, Page 7

PORT DARWIN GOLD-FIELD

'From ono of the. several miners who left this district for Port Darwin, we have re coived the following letter, which, as it sufficiently explains itself, we publish .without ibrnineht,' except "that the writer .is wellfcnown in this district, and .that his statements, may bo held pliable : To the Editor of the GromwßlL Aitbus.' \ . "" Snt,-^-In. leaving .New Zealand-,, I promised to write to several parties in the Cromwell district relative to .the Port .Darwin gold-fields. As far as my own personal experience is . concerned, however, -I cannot ■submit anything to their notice'; 'but if the result of careful enquiry and long conversation with persons who have just returned from the field will satisfy them, I supply it, through your columns, with pleasure. The parties from whose accounts 1 have gathered the information are thoroughly trustworthy, and I think it. may be reckoned the fairest and most reliable to be had: " In the Yam Creek district of the field, as well as in some others, some reefs have been found, but no stone has been crushed as yet. • Several batteries have been erected, but there is nothing for them to crush. The reefs are large on the surface, but are not traceable to any depth. Some of the stone has been tested, and yielded largely; but that, of . course, was not the .worst of the stone. On an average, it will not go more than from fite to fifteen pennyweights to the ton. Companies have been floated in Adelaide upon a mere report, consequently capitalists got disgusted with. such proceedings, and now a . person cannot float anything in the way of reefs. They extend over a large extent of country, but nothing really permanent has been discovered yet. . "So much for the reefs. As to alluvial ■ mining, not much has been or can be said. Some patches have been found in and around Yam Creek, but nothing whatever to warrant persons in setting out on the faith of making

a ' pile.' Some parties are making fair wages, bat more are making .nothing. "The general opinion is that in time it will be a good gold-field, but it will be years first. A friend of mine owns a vessel now on the return voyage from the Port, and he tells me she is bringing back more passengers than she took away. The great drawback to the field is the climate, which some ignore altogether, while most do not take it sufficiently into consideration. The heat is said to be frightful, and the country fit only for a.Chinaman or some other ' obnoxious' animal,—) certainly not for a white man. Yellow fever and fever-and-ague are very prevalent, as well as other distempers of a milder but still trying character. Then there is the chance of being murdered by the savages, who are getting very troublesome. They killed two poor fellows the other day, who were travelling up to the gold-fields. Being wear}' and tired, the- two men had gone to f Kleep in their tent, pitched by the side of the track, when they were set upon by the swages and cruelly dispatched with spears. The bodies were afterwards, found by Mr Johnston, the telegraph manager at Yam Creek. " The rainy season commences in Decern-1 ber, and continues to the middle of IVlarch ; i consequently the roads are impassable to j waggons or drays for seven months of the year. Cartage is £l2O per ton from the Port j to the field of labour. I " To sum up, what I have heard leads me] to the opinion that the long time required for \ prospecting in such a climate before any re-1

turns come lr, is too great a strain upon a European, but more especially upon one who has been for any time accustomed to the bracing air of- New Zealand. Hoping that you will be kind enough to give publicity to the foregoing, so that perhaps some may be prevented from leaving the shadow for the substance, and may be induced to wait for further news ; and hoping, also, that those to whom I promised to write will be satisfied with this short account for the present, —I am, &c, "Jacob Johnston. "Melbourne, Nov. 15, 1873."