THE PALMER.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1755, 20 March 1874, Page 2

THE PALMER.

[gympib times.] .■...•; The subjoined letter has been received by a Gynipieitefrom a friend of his living at Cooktowu. The writer, it may be stated, occupies* a position which, presumably, enables him to obtain fuller and more reliable information concerning the Palmer than the generality of the Cooktown residents. He says :— " Well relative to the Palmer diggings, the miners there are still turning out plenty of gold ; they have been, however, flooded out of the main river for the last month, and they are now working in the back gullies, which I am told are turning out as rich as the main river. The number of miners coming here en route to the Palmer is something frightful. Tarn told there will be 12,000 people on the new diggings in six months' time ; this will be sufficient to work all the alluvial ground out, and the Palmer will then be done for, unless reefs are found, in which case it will be a permanent gold-field, &c. I would not advise you, my dear friend, to give up your billet to come to the Palmer ; 'no doubt you would make better wages for a time, but first of all you must recollect that you are very comfortable where you are, and secondly great hardships in getting from here to the gold-field have to be endured, and the living is beyond description. Think of a man, after coming fifteen miles to the butcher, getting perhaps 1001 b. of beef, and when no salt is procurable, hav-ing-to cut it into strips and dry it in /the sun to preserve it ! There is scarcelyla week passes that four deaths, between this and the Palmer are not reported ,y the men leave here, perhaps after a spree, and will then take diarrhoea and die after a couple of days sickness. The blacks speared and killed two men this last week, and wounded three mote;' 1 one of the latter is likely to lose the sight of his eye. A mob of six men on horseback were also attacked j they threw their rations, swags'

and everything they had, to the darkies, and gallopped off. We have here (Cook town) no less than Id public houses, 4 wholesale stores, 4 auctioneers, and 2 banks, and all other kinds of houses in proportion. Just think of this in a town only three months old ! No man should come here without a horse to take up to to the diggings a couple of hundredweight of ratiens, as all he can carry on his back would be eaten up before he would get to the end of his journey. The same paper of a later date also publishes the following extract from a private letter: — "What rations they can get to the Palmer, are taken up by packhorses, for which the charge is only 2s per lb carriage, or L2O cash, to carry up one bag of flour; very encouraging that. The buildings here are all calico, so it is a mistake of people to think they can get employment at or in Cooktown. It is very hot here ; you could boil anything in or by the heat of the sun. The blacks are very bad on the road, having killed two men, and speared three others, last week. In fact, the darkies seem very bold, and have generally had the best of any they have stuck up as yet. Last week they came down in a large mob, and challenged the townspeople to come across the river to fight. Men here seem afraid to face the Palmer, on account of bad roade, the want oi rations, and fear of the blacks. It is a bad job coming without a horse. I have joined a party of 14. We leave on Tuesday or Wednesday next. The distance by the new road is 120 miles. If possible we will push up to see what it is like."