Coolgaride Goldfields.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 338, 13 June 1894, Page 2

Coolgaride Goldfields.

(By a Feildino Resident.) TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE STAR. In compliance with your request, and in order to give those with limited means who contemplate coming over to these fields to try their luck some idea of tho country they are coming to, I send you this short description, and sincerely hope that it may be tbe means of saviug many a poor fellow from bitter disappointment, if from nothing worse. I have been digging on several of tbe Mnrchison fields and on all the rushes in this district, with one or two exceptions, so I think I am fully competent to give you some of the most important facts concerning the West Australian goldfields. In case you should be misled by the glowing accounts of West Australia which are being circulated in tbo newspapers of the eastern colonies, I would have you understand that it is a golden opportunity for them to get rid of their surplus population, which they are not slow to take advantage of, and, therefore, they give prominence to any item that will help to boom this country without even waiting to enquire if there is any truth in the matter, thus doing irreparable injury in a great many cases. At this time of writing the country is iv a terribly dry state. We have had no rain worth mentioning this winter, and there is every indication of a continuation of the present weather. The roads between Coolgardie and some of tbe outlying fields are in consequence impassable. The road from Southern Cross to Coolgardie is also blocked, in fact, teamsters are now prohibited from carrying passengers' luggage at all ; and are only allowed to leave Southern Cross with provisions at tbe rate of two teams in every forty-eight hours. These precautions are absolutely necessary in order to economise the water in the " soaks " along the road. Fears are being openly expressed in Coolgardie that there will be a severe tucker famine there before long. There are now about five thousand men camped around Coolgardie waiting for the nest rush They olone aro sufficient in number to swamp all lbs fields in this district. The wail of the unemployed is already audible in Coolgardie. The Government are giving them a week'- work in some of the dams in course of excavation and are then turning them adrift on the road to the Metropolis. Their future there is a gloomy one indeed, fer there is very little work going on in the country which is already overpopulated. There are about 1500 men on this road, Kurnalpi, one of the latest finds, two thirds ot whom are doing absolutely nothing for the place is practically worked out. At most of the other fields around there are a few men scratching about striving to eke out a truly miserable existence Tho prices on Kurn*lpi of some of the necessary articles of life are as follows: —Water, ls per gallon ; flour, £3 per 501 b bag ; fresh meat, ls per lb ; sugar, ls 6d per lb ; butter, 3s per lb ; tobacco, 14s per lb, and everything else in proporiion. When this placo was first rushed the storekeepers charged £5 for 501 bof flour. The teamsters genera'ly charge exhorbitant prices for conveying luggage to new rushes The first lot of men who came here from Coolgardie had to pay £10 per head per cwt. Not long ago it cost a friend of mine 13s to feed lm horse in Coolgardie, chaff being then ls per Ib and oats the same price. I also know a man who had to pay £15 for one drink for his horses, nine in number, thes having been without a drink for four day3 However, these are exceptional cases. Living is fairly cheap in Coolgardie so long as provisions remain plentiful. Of course you can understand that as new fields are opened up further eastward and therefore further from civilization these troubles will be accentuated. There are, without doubt, a few grand reefs here, and a great many worthless ones, but it ia only one man in five hundred who finds a good one. If one man gets a large nugget it is duly chronicled in all the papers, but no mention is made of the hundred and one poor devils who get nothing. It costs a man about £14 for bare travelling expenses from New Zealand to Coolgardie then £2 more for tools, etc., and finally perhaps about as much again to get from Coolgardie to the next new rush, but of course tbat mainly depends upon the distance to bo traversed. Wantof space will not permit me to enumerate the many other eyils of minor importance to which the new arrival especially is subjected. In conclusion I may state that in my poor opinion a man, be he old or young, would be far wiser to remain in New Zealand than to come here expecting to make a fortune. Yours sincerely, J. A. B. Johnston. Kurnalpi, Coolgardie Goldfield, April 7th, 1894.