THE QUEENSLAND GOLD FIELD.

Grey River Argus, Volume V, Issue 341, 21 March 1868, Page 3

THE QUEENSLAND GOLD FIELD.

The West Coast Times publishes the following letter from a West Coast miner now in Queensland, addressed to a friend in Hokitika : — Nashville, Mary River, Queensland, February 24, 1868. Respected Friend — According to promise, I here take this opportunity to address yon with a few lines, and with as correct an account of these Gold Fields, as far as my judgment will allow me to speak of them. This day four weeks we left Hokitika roadstead. We had a pood passage to Melbourne; arrived in Melb >nrne this day three weeks ; sailed the next morning for Sydney. When we arrived in Sydney the excitement about these Gold Fields was very great ; we had to wait our turn before we could get tickeii for the steamers ; and after waiting for a few days we got one for Maryborough via Brisbane. When we reached Brisbane, the excitement was greater there than in Sydney, on account of this monster nugget being got here, and everything looked so lively, and seeing no one returning, I began to think I was right ; but there is nothing like a man to come and look for himself. We sailed from Brisbane to Maryborough, and arrived there this day week. Everyone there was in quite a bustle ; it was reported that a first-rate rush had broken out that day 48 miles from Maryborough. I started with more New Zealanders for the promised land that very night, and we walked without our swags 48 miles in sixteen hours through the hard broiling sun, and part of the night. We reached the place quite exhausted,, and to our sorrow there was no rush at all. Some evil fellow had played a trick with the Commissioner, and applied for a prospecting claim, and also received goods under false pretences from different storekeepers. After playing this trick he cleared out, and about 3000 diggers running about the country with the Commissioner looking out for the prospectors ; but they have caught the rascal, and he will be punished. After that little affair I came on to Mary River diggings. I have been here three days, and in these three days I have rounded all the diggings that have been opened here at different times. There ia in all seven small gullies opened here, and I believe that some of them are very good. The population of this place I would estimate at 9000 or 10,000 men, and out of that I should think that there was 1000 or 1200 on gold. The gullies are very narrow, and the run's in all of them except one creek. The run is only a claim wide. The last place opened is called Deep Creek ; it is about thirty feet sinking, wet, and slabbing required ; and three or four tlaims wide. There are several acquaintances of mine from the West Coast in pretty good claims in this creek lam going over there to live, as I think I can edge in along with some of the new chums there. I think there will be a pretty good fossicking to be done after some of these Queensland diggers ; they are actually murdering the ground in some of these gullies. Now, I shall commence with my advice to my friends and acquaintances on the West Coast. Although things look very dark with me at present, I am not the least sorry that I came over

here, because it is a very likely-looking country for many miles about, and there is such a great rush over here of the right sort of diggers that will prospect the country properly ; but I would strongly advise all over there who are earning L 2 or L 3 per week to stop and stick at it ; because, over here, if a man is not fortunate enough to drop on a payable claim, there is n|t the slightest chance of getting a job. TheVcruatters are only paying 10s per week ;*road laborers, who have been highly recommended by some nobleman at"home, they will get 4s per day, working out in the sun at 115 or 120 in the shade. That will tell you about emigration. At the same time, people who have nothing in' view over there might do worse than come over here, because if something new breaks out here, by t!ie time you will hear of it over there, it will be almost half worked out. If I had come over here at the first minors of these diggings, I am sure I could not have gone wrong for a few hundred pounds ; that was a month before Christmas. The gold is very nuggetty. The big nuggett was found in about four feet sinking ; it was on a shelf of a reef in the gully. " I have been on the spot and talking to the man that found it. They got another eight pounds weight two days after. These diggings are exactly like the Kinggnwer diggings in Victoria were when they first broke out. I was on those diggings in the first rush ; and my opinion is that a place could not be moro like it than this place is. At the head of every payable gully here there is a quartz reef, and it appears that where they cannot find a reef at the head of them, there is no gold in the gully. This is the opinion of those long-headed fellows who spout in the hut on geology. Now, ray friend, I beg of you to let all my old friends know the particulars as it will save me writing. ■ I promised to write to Mailing and others, which I did from Brisbane and Sydney, and also sent a few newspapers over ; but at that time I did not know so much about, these diggings as I do now, or else I should not have given such a glowing account of them. I shall write to you again as soon as I am better acquainted with the state of affairs ; or if there should be another rush of some good and extensive sort. The diggers are coming in from all parts in hundreds, and the general cry is it is over-rushed. Some go right back to their old quarters, and some out prospecting. I will now conclude, hoping that these few lines will find you and Mrs Evans and the son enjoying good health, the same as myself at present, thanks be to God, with kind respects to you and all Mends, I remain, Your truly well-wisher, Robt. Hughes. To Mr J. Evans, Red Lion, Hokitika.