The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, DEC. 4, 1886. New Gold Diggings

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 66, 4 December 1886, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, DEC. 4, 1886. New Gold Diggings

The new craze started in South Australia in the form of an El Dorado at Teetulpa, is being industriously advertised in New Zealand by Reuter's Agent, at the expense of the newspaper proprietors of the colony. We do not think, while the experiences of the rush to Kimberley are yet green, that many miners or adventurers will be tempted from this district. We have interviewed Mr Brooker who has just returned from Adelaide, and he informs us he has not a high opinion of the place. Water is scarce and very expensive, that for cooking purposes ranging from 3d 6d per bucket. In order to get water for gold washing, wells have to be sunk from 20 to 40 feet deep, therefore the greatest economy must be used when working the cradles, while the process, as may be easily imagined, of getting the geld is slow and inefficient, so much so that half the metal is lost. With the slightest breath of air, a fine and almost imperceptible dust is raised, which penetrates into every nook and cranny, rendering food of all kinds either unfit for use altogether, or making it unpalatable to any but the keenest appetites. These and other discomforts such as flies, snakes, and creeping things incidental to a very warm climate, would be submitted to with patience if there was plenty of good gold obtainable i_ but that remains to be proved. A great fuss is made about a bank having opened on the field, and purchased 100 ounces. Why if the place was any good at all a hundred times that would not equal a' small place like Boss, in the good old times of the West Coast diggings of New Zealand. It strikes us very forcibly that the value of gold diggers as pioneers to explore and open a country, and afterwards settle it with an energetic, hardworking, lawabiding population, is beginning to be properly appreciated in Australian settlements. The several governments are encouraging prospecting by the most liberal rewards. Take Kimberley for instance. That place would never have been rushed, only that the Government offered a reward of £5000 for the discovery of a goldfield which would produce 10,000 ounces in one year, to be shown by the customs returns of the duty paid. The men who discovered gold at Kimberley had been out for years, and spent large sums of money during that time. When they struck gold, that appeared payable, on ground which looked capable of greater development they at once sent in their claim as discoverers in order to protect their right to the reward. They were so uncertain themselves as to the real value of the ground that they did not even apply for an extended area as prospectors. This was perhaps fortunate for themselves for if they had done so the disappointed and angry men who were befooled by being enticed on to the ground, would have handled them pretty roughly. Such things have happened before. It must not be understood that we would deter any young adventurous spirits from trying their fortunes on any new field in any part of the world. On the contrary we prefer them to cut themselvos adrift from leading strings, to go out and conquer the wilderness. If they fail, as many hundreds of good men have before them, they can console themselves with the reflection that " they did their level best."