THE QUEENSLAND RUSH.

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 400, 6 August 1868, Page 3

THE QUEENSLAND RUSH.

[From the Ballarat Post] As we anticipated, the Queensland rush is not what many persons expected. It has allured the unthinking portion of the population, and the result is that hundreds of persons who look their departure from Ballarat are now on their way baok again. It is an old saying that " distance lends enchantment to the view," and so it was with the rush to Gynipie and adjacent fields. Hundreds of persons rushed oft" to that gold field on the receipt of intelligence from interested parties, and ' Sydney now is flooded with the dupes on their return homewards. Bitter is the tone uliich they have adopted, and for very shame many of them keep their mouths closed, being unwilling to acknowledge that they were pursuing an ignis futuus. Two persons, named Albert Ffyto and Weber, started from Mount Clear some time ago to visit the new El Dorado. Both were experienced miners, and the first was constantly employed by a compauy at Sebastopol, and in receipt of good wages. In an evil hour he started for Gympie, and on his return therefrom he met Weber and gave him an account of how things were going on at the new gold field. He states that the majority of the miners are doing nothing, that some are making barely tucker, and that few, very few, are doing well. The gold is purchased at £3 7s 6d to £3 10s per oz., and the storekeepers are afraid to purchase it at even tliis price, fearing lest they should be robbed of their treasure. Bakers' shops are being attacked and robbed of their contents ; riots, pugilism and rowdyism prevail, and many persons have taken to plunder, to highway robbery, and the bush. A few mining companies in Ballarat turn out weekly more gold than the large population at Gympie can produce for a fortnight. The publicans generally are blamed for getting up fictitious accounts of the yield of gold, which has been so small that the Queensland Government haa not deemed it expedient to appoint a gold escort. At all rushes hitherto it has been found that this class of people, combined with storekeepers generally, have, for selfish motives, forwarded fictitious telegrams to the neighboring colonies, liighly exaggerating the yields of gold in order to induce a rush, and careless of the suffering and hardships which ensue, provided they can benefit themselves by the hardships their visitors suffer We are informed that numbers of miners are on their way back co Sydney, and that those only who have not the means remain behind. As to the quartz reefs of the district, six pennyweights of gold is considered an enormous yield ; but when it is remembered that the largest crushing machinery on the ground can only put some sixty tons of stone through the mill per week, the prospects are anything but encouraging. To all, we would say, remain where you are until you hear further and reliable news from Gympie, until you consult some of the Ballarat men who are now on their way home as to the resources of the district, and the prospect of doing better there than in " old