ACCOUNT BY AN AUCKLAND VISITOR TO DERBY.

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 154, 8 June 1886, Page 3

ACCOUNT BY AN AUCKLAND VISITOR TO DERBY.

Mr Campbell, of Auckland, who has just returned from the Kimberley having left there on sth May, has been interviewed by a Star reporter. He gives the following particulars regarding Derby :•— " Handed in King's Sound, on which Derby is built, *n 7th April. The landing is . very bad. * "The .tide has a rise and faR of 86ft, -and the 'adjacent water being very shallow, the tide recedes nearly three miles. The site of Derby is dead level ; indeed there is not an eminence to be seen anywhere. As far as the eye -can see there are sandy, well-grassed j plains, which, I. believe, would pro- ! -vide fodder for horses all the year .around. Derby iB three miles from the landing place. There is no road, but a temporary tramway had been laid along the mud-flat which extends irom the beach to within a mile and a half of the town. At the time of my -visit h consisted of two " hotels," the .Resident Magistrates's house, a few liutß with thatched roofs, and some b miner-' tents. -. There were about 100 residents, including 50 diggers. Horses to carry provisions, &c., are absolute necessities. The climate is remarkably good. Up to the time of my visit i there had not been a single case of iever and ague. The weather though it was as late as April,- was very hot. From May to September the weather is cool and delightful, and the flies snd mosquitos, which are always very bad during .summer, almost disappear, hut tke ants are a terrible pest. I «aw ant-hills 15ft high, and old residents say that it is almost impossible to save anything from them. A few snakes have been seen near the township, but the varieties are believed to be harmless, and none of the pioneers have been bitten. Living is remarkAbly cheap, the\ hotels only charging | _Jss per week for "board and lodging. ' The food Supplied at these establish-int-nts comprised potted meat and fish, bread, teaj' &c. No -fresh meat. I -saw no New Zealand brands -of meat. Hour per 50lbsbag was 10s ; rice, 2_d jer lb „. good tea, 2s 3d per lb ; sugar, -6dperlb; bacon, .Ls6d per lb; potted meat, Is 3d per lb, or by the case Is. Seeing that things can be purchased -so cheap, f would not advise diggers to take provisions with them. The great want is packsaddles, and thetn they certainly should take. The lowest price for the worst class of horse hacks that would not bring more than- J_s in .Auckland is £25, and a shipment of torse* should pay -well.- I do not think that Derby will- -be theporte. manent entrepot of the district. Cam- * bridge' Gulf, which is 500 miles further north, is 100 miles hearer the gold.field, .and possesses a good landing, -vhich cannot be obtained anywhere near __^*by.~ There is also 54 - good drinking water 'at ' Caqfrbri dge,* which is not t_^ oase in Derby. The 1 water in D^y itobtajned from wells, but is wery brackish.' The Fitzroy river, which arums --.ear the township, is merely a •winter wSter-course v and does not rim in sammer, though-- there are pools in its bed all the year round. I did ajot go te the goldfield, for personal Teasons, but I J_ave not the slightest doubt the field is a good genuine one. _____*t*rs who had been up at the gold_ields and had gold were rather reticent as to localities, and when "they -went sOut again they sneaked off for fear «of being followed. Diggers told me -bat the read is a good one, and that you <could get a dray nearly to the field without cutting a -sapling. There is plenty of water all the year round in the water-holes in the river, and there is also good feed for horses and cattle- All parties carry arms, not for protection from, blacks, who sre tos frightened of the whites to be dangerous, but for the purpose of siring out their prbyendor with game turkeys, and kangaroos being j rery plentiful. I intend to return to J Kimberley about March.— Evening Pdetfs Auckland Correspondent.