The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, SEPT. 18, 1886. Kimberley

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 42, 18 September 1886, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, SEPT. 18, 1886. Kimberley

In our issue of to-day we publish a letter from a correspondent who was, on the date of his letter, August 2, en route for the Kimberley goldfields. Since the date of that letter, many telegrams have reached us of the most opposite character Some have said by implication tho field must turn out the grandest in the world, while others declare it off hand to he a duffer. While wo are indisposed to place much credence on the optimists, yet on the pessimists, who can only speak evil of the future of the field, wo place not the slightest reliance. We know the class well. It is generally composed of men who have started on the journey, acting on a sudden impulse without previously counting the cost, or haying proved their physical power to meet and overcome the fatigues, difficulties, and dangers, incidental to the pursuit of gold-mining. The first check encountered establishes a funk which is never got rid of until the adventurers have arrived homo again. Although they may be easily frightened, yet for shame's sake they must rind excuses for failing to reach the goal for which they started. Their quick imaginations readily supply them with ostensible causes which compelled them to give up the chaso. Streams become rivers ; lakes become seas ; hills become impassible mountains ; a timorous black a host of savages ; and a dry tussock a desert. This sort of people may not be reliod on to push far into a new country. We have been told that 500 men have returned from Kimberley; that great distress prevails ; and that " Kimberley is a fraud." We simply do not believe it. That a lot of men have come back is possible enough ; but that they ever put a pick in the ground we question very much. We have the same opinion as our correspondent, that the field has yet to be proved whether it be good or bad, and another 6 months will have to pass over our heads before it can be said the place is a success or a duffer. The idea that an enterprise ie to be condemned because a few timid people " have no faith in it," is simply absurd and contemptible.