THE RUSH TO NEW SOUTH WALES.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2736, 23 November 1871, Page 3

THE RUSH TO NEW SOUTH WALES.

The Sydney Morning Herald of October 6th, gives the following iti-ma regarding the mining prospects at Gulgong, Sydney, to which place several miners have lately gone from here : The returns from Gulgong have kept up an average of rather more than 2000 ozs. per week, the fortnightly escort ranging from 4000ozs. to 5000OZ8. The old leads—the Black and the Happy Valley-are being gradually extended as claim after claim strikes gold, until there are now over thirty frontage claims on rich or payable wash, whilst many block claims on tue wings of the frontage are getting fair dirt. One claim ori the Happy Valley lead was recently reported to have struck very rich washdirt getting as much as 25 ozs to the load ; and several other washings have been reported which reach very nearly to that amount of yield. In addition to this there have been two new leads on which gold has been struck, whilst the shallower diggings are gradually extending. Our last news brought us accounts of a rush to a gully in the vicinity of Reedy Creek, only a mile or two from the township. The Three-Mile Bush is being steadily worked, and Rapp’s Gully, which was not thought much of when first taken up, is now beginning to develope a good amount of payable ground. There is, no doubt, a very considerable amount of auriferous ground iu this district, and with the large population now on the spot, there is every chance that the whole country will get fair overhauling before Gulgong is on the wane. In the meantime diggers are flocking from all quarters to the township; from Queensland, from Victoria, and even from New Zealand, men continue to arrive almost daily, and the latest computation was that there were at the least eight thousand persons on the Gulgong goldfield. Unfortunately the great majority of these are not in employment, and consist of men who have come to the spot in search of work, or in the hoi'C of setting in on their own account. The work on the leads and on the shallow diggings is limited, and that there is little employment for wages men, except shepherding on the lines of lead ; while those having money are compelled to lie idle until opening offers for the investment of their capital and labor. There has been some littlo excitement here over the promulgation of the new frontage regulations recently framed by the Government. It was not likely that, with a system faulty in itself, there would be any chance of adopting regulations likeiy to make it work smoothly. The frontage system has always been a kind of miner’s chimera, longingly sought for, but never satisfactorily grasped, since it has always been found impossible to make that works by regulations which was unworkable in itself.