THE PORT DARWIN RUSH.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1294, 21 September 1872, Page 4

THE PORT DARWIN RUSH.

The Adelaide correspondent of the Melbourne Argm writes as follows :— During the past few days several telegrams have airived from the Northern Territory on the subject of gold, but they all have the same discouraging burden. The precious metal has been met with, but only in small quantities, and the difficulty of working the auriferous country is immense. In this unemotional colony we are utterly at a loss to understand the grounds for the rush of diggers from Victoria to Port Darwin. The prospects, bo far as any intelligible account of them has reached Adelaide, are not to be compared in richness with those of many parts of the southern territory of this colony y and yet thore has been no rush from your side to this on account of our gold deposits. It is distance that is adding enchantment to the view, and it is very much to be feared that the disenchantment will be accompanied with much real distress. We in South Australia have tho proud consciousness of knowing tbai wo have done little towards getting »p the excitement. Many months^ ago a party left the Colony,, but it was on a prospecting ox,peditioo > and the majority of people were prepared to await its report; Since then, one- or two other gangs of enthusiastic young men havo niado. their way to Port Darwin, but the exodus, tjo. the North from this portion of Australia has been on a very limited scale. At one period our Commissioner of Crown Lands, who has indirectly a personal interest in the trade of the territory, spoke warmly of the auriferous promise that the country held out, but he has latterly become as circumspect as the rest. *