The Palmer Rush.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 231, 14 April 1874, Page 7

The Palmer Rush.

The Queensland correspondent of the Daily Times, writing from Brisbane on the 19th March, says “ There are thousands of your population interested in Gold-fields, and they will want to know the truth of the recent discoveries on the Palmer. It is an indisputable fact that the new gold-field comprises a tract of auriferous country extending over an area of least sixty miles long by forty miles wide, and strongly suspected of extending farther in both directions. There is, also, no doubt that payable gold has been found in quantities sufficient to justify the expectation that the new field will support a considerable population for at least a few months. This I believe to be all that can be said of which there is at present any certainty, and it offers no justification for the senseless rush which has taken place to Cooktown from every part of Australia. I say advisedly “ to Cooktown,” for until within the last few days the road from that place to the Palmer has been closed by. the flood ; and many who were on their way between the two places had suffered great hardships, approaching nearly, and, I fear, in a few instances, actually reaching, starvation. Recent official telegrams, however, state that the country between the two places, which in wet weather is much of it too rotten for horse traffic, is fast drying up, and some 1500 people who were either on the road or in camp at the month of the Endeavour will soon be at work. We may then expect, in the course of another month, to be in a position to draw safe conclusions as to the character and prospects of the Palmer by a comparison of information coming from official and private sources, as well as from special reporters for the Press. Meanwhile, I venture to advise your digging population to wait, promising to tell them the truth whatever it is. Meanwhile, they may be saving themselves from much loss of time and money, to say nothing of possible hardship,”