MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

Dunstan Times, Issue 342, 13 November 1868, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

The Fiji excitement is raging in Melbourne to such an extent that another steamer has been laid on the berth for Levuka. It is announced that excurtion tickets will be issued on this occasion, for the benefit both of p'easure seekers and of parties desirous of visiting the islands before making up their minds to settle there. Lord Burghley has been making a tour through some of the country districts of Victoria He visited Ballarat on the occasion of the Grand National Show, and was present at the dinner which took place under the auspices of the Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Association. On the following day he visited some of the more extensive mining works in the district, and returned the same evening to Midbourne. Matters at the Thames Goldfields seem to be in a very unpromising state, judging from the following exj tract from the letter of a miner who | recently went there from the West I Coast:—Things are very stagnant now; j there are hundreds of miners v. ho have held on to their claims in tue hope of raising a swindle on them, who are now reduced to the verge of destitution, I maysayalmoststaivation There are a great number of business places going up ; they may do well, perhaps, for a time, but I cannot see how ail the business people that are building here now will be able to get on. Unless something in the shape of alluvial is discovered shortly there ! will be great distress here ; in fact, , men are offering to work for a pound i per week, and it costs l as. per man a week to live economically. ! -A- letter regarding the Thames | Go cl fields, from an experienced mi- | ner who took part in the rush thither from the West Const is quoted by the j Westport Times as follows :—I don’t believe in the future of the Thames Goldfields. There are a few good claims, but hundreds of duffers. There arc hundreds of men walking the streets of Shortland every day in the week. Any man making 21. per week oa the Coast should not come here with the view of making more. 21. per week is the wages hero for diggers, or labouring men on the diggings, and there is little or no work to bo had. Carpenters are getting 9s. icr day. Ton can generally tell what a new rush is by the rate of wages given.