The Evening Star TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4106, 25 April 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 1876.

It is earnestly to be hoped that the news received from Queensland of the failure of the Palmer Rush may be in time to prevent many from leaving this Colony on so risky a gold hunt. All the accounts received concerning the Palmer diggings tend to show that more than ordinary uncertainty of success is involved in working there. The gold does not appear to lie near the surface in old river beds as in Victoria, or, as in New Zealand, apparently, as a lacustrine deposit Spread pretty evenly over large areas, but in

patches somewhat capriciously dotted over | a vast extent of country, or in quartz raa- j trices, involving great outlay of capital for j crushing plant. Nor is there much to set off | against the difficulties that await even the most successful miner. He may chance to come upon a patch that bids fair to repay him for his labor, and he may chance to live to enjoy his well earned wealth. Some few have made fortunes, just as many thousands have done in New South Wales, Victoria, and New Zealand. Bv.t there is less chance of enjoying them wh.en made. Undeniably life is uncertain in all places, and therefore everywhere lucky diggers have heaped up riches that it has fallen to the fortunate lot of others to enjoy. But the chances of personally reaping the benefit of profitable mining industry are far greater in the Southern Colonies than in Queensland. Diseases unknown here are rife in that hot, fever-breeding climate. It can never be considered safe for Europeans to risk exposure to the hardships inseparable *rom a miner’s life in tropical countries, wu ere only those who are acclimatised through birth or long residence can labor with immunity. It has been said that this cannot ap' ply to the Palmer diggings, as they are in the mountainous districts, and enjoy all the advantages of the temperate zones. Poshly so; but there are many weary footsteps between the coast and the diggings, the tracks to which, like the highways of the African desert, are marked by the mementoes of death. That imagination must be very one-sided that sees in the Queensland diggings the prospect of gold, and shuts out of the picture the grinning spectres that lie in the way of gathering it. Very dazzling must be the glittering metal to blind the eye to them. Jn the first place it is forgotten that “ gold c<rets gold.” That is—there must be a positive outlay of a sum of money before even the pi'ospect of finding gold can be realised. There the coat of outfit for the voyage,

the cost of the voyage itself, the loss of time occupied in travelling, the cost of provisions for the overland journey, and the time requisite for examining the ground before setting in to work. In addition to these are dangers by the way. The first and most immediate is that of sickness shortly after landing. Many men who never suffered from a day’s illness in these climates treat that prospect lightly. They appear to think only the delicate are liable to be attacked, and that they are proof against the danger. They forget, or perhaps do not know, that they leave a country naturally suited to British constitutions for one in which Englishmen, and still less Scotchmen, cannot labor. They leave climates where it is found necessary to import natives of the island clusters of the hot zones of the Pacific, in order to till their fields and raise their crops. In leaving New Zealand they turn their backs on the healthiest climate in the world, and in going to Queensland, before arriving at the diggings, they pass through a zone loaded with germs of dysentery and fever, ready to take root in systems prepared for their reception, by the inevitable inactivity of a sea-voyage. Or, escaping all these, there are enemies of their own kind who are not to be despised or left out of the account. There may be many of our high-spirited fellow-countrymen who would enjoy a brush with the blacks in

the mere spirit ot adventure, we nave met with more than one who bore on thenpersons the ecars of spear-wounds from Queensland blacks, who related the stories of their encounters with something of the gusto with which Cummins tells his hunting adventures with lions and large game. But although in their way these men are heroes, and through their courage extricated themselves and saved their lives, there is not much glory attending their exploits. Our soldiery do not like wars with savages, for they never seem to be accredited with the merit that is due to them. Greek must meet Greek before men in general think danger ha‘.s been overcome, and a victory worth a pean has been gained. , Yet the danger of being spared by the blacks is not to be forgotten in the enumeration of the obstacles to success in Queensland. We trust now that the last has hurst, all future reports—no matter £u?w tempting may be distrusted. In New Zealand, success to all who will work and save, is nd?rly certain. Money gained by the persistent pursuit of every-day industry accumulates apparently slowly, and a lucky nugget might give more at one stroke of the pick than years of labor may acquire ; but the nuggets are few, and, like prizes in a lottery, fall to the lot iof one in five or ten thousand. Unfortunately the prizes are trumpeted, while the blanks are forgotten. Both should be looked at, and wise men will say that the diggings of Otago afford a better prospect of prizes with fewer impediments to success than those of Queensland.