MORE ABOUT THE PALMER,

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1779, 18 April 1874, Page 2

MORE ABOUT THE PALMER,

We take the following items from the Gympie Times' of the flth Marcjb, and other Queensland papers :— ■ Two or;three Gympie, men have lately returned from Cooktown and the Palmer, and their accounts, of both places to a great extent corroborates *he reports we have lately published. We have had a chat with Mr Martin, who give's a very clear and simple description of the state of affairs as he witnessed it. He reached the Palmer safely, although he found the road, or rather track, to the diggings much longer than had been represented. His party was not actually molested by the blacks, but one man got a severe fright, the darkies jumped out in front of him, and he threw off his swag and ran back for his life, followed for some distance by two of the savages. Along some parts of the track the grass is very thick, and about five feet high ; the blacks could be heard in the grass on either side, evidently poking fun at the party; Mr Martin -says ,he does not think .that a much more direct road to the diggings will be found than the one he travelled. On arrival at the Palmer, he discovered that he was rather late ;' nearly all the payable ground then discovered had been worked out, and the river itself,, where the heavy gold had been got^ was. full of water, the rainy season being on. The. diggings are much scattered, and it is not true that there is "40 miles in-extent of payable ground " ; even in'- the nver,*it . : appears there are long intervals of almost blank ground, the bars only being really' payable; Mr Martin also gave a melancholy description of the miseries, hard-; ships, and risks to life and health, suffered by the diggers, hot 1 oiny'at Palmer and on the road thither, but at, Oooktown. He believes that the list of men missing will be very large ; through fatigue or exhaustion whilst;. oh. 'the- way to t.r from the Palmer, many men would drop behind, perhari3 to , starve or. be killed : by the blacks.. Yellow fever and. Bcurvy.,, besides such ordinary diseases as diarrhoea and dyesentry, are common, and at Cooktown the sleep of the men encamped is frequently disturbed by the 'moans'- of poor fellows suffering from illness. On arrival from the Palmer, often half-starved, men would go in for a "feed" at one of/the restaurants at Oooktown, and become"oTreadf ully il I through diet to which they were not accustomed. • It was difficult to ascertain how far the mortality extended, for it seems that the death of one ait wo men through exhaustion is not considered a remarkable matter. Other particulars of a similar nature have been elicited from Mr Martin,, mostly corroborative of previous accounts. He strongly advises that no o.ne should go to this latest rush ; he admits that it is possible that new country will be found in. the Palmer district, but says that' there!: are.; i quite enough, men there to soon work it out. By the time, the news of- a fresh, rush would, reach Gympie it would be too late to start from here, considering the difficulty of: travelling to -the place.;. Beefs there certainly are,.for, he t io.und two himself ;j but there waA.J?Q,. IpayaWe^gqld-,in1 payaWe^gqld-,in the stone. He thinks that there cannot possibly be a (For remainder ofNews } see 4th page,)

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road worthy of the name opened up this side of twelve months, and even then the numerous frightful swamps will always render the carriage of goods a matter of extreme uncertainty. In the steamer by which Mr Martin came to Kockhampton there were thirty-six men, and all of them had been on the Palmer and gave very similar reports of it. ; The Bulletin says :—'. t The newß from the Endeavor River by the Leichhardt, b.s, is of ihe most unsatisfactory cha-. racter. Theie ara mftny l rumors of large r quantities of gold having reached the place,' but there are no authenticated statements of men coming in.satisfied with the diggings, or showing deposit receipts of gold actually placed in the banks, of which there aro tWo in full playi A gentleman, informs us that he' went to the Palmer ■River diggings' from the Etheridge in the month of December Jast, to try. his luck. He describes the auriferous ground as extending along the banks of the Palmer River proper, ani along the right and left branches of it, covering an estimated area of not less than sixty miles/in length, and varying in. width from three to ten miles.' The gullies are rich in many places, but, as is characteristic of almost all the Queensland diggings, they are rich only, in patches.- As iaras alluvial gold is concerned, he has no doubt that the country will turn ; out well, that is, as a ' e,na& poor man's diggings.' Many gold bearing reefs have been proved, and left for the, more exciting pursuit of gully-raking; in fact, . there are no appliances on the ground to even commence reefing , with any good show of success. 'Our informant worked for some weeks, and got on an average of 2oz a day of water-worn gold. This was procured principally from two gullies, which run tip from the river to the ranges, the sinking averaging in depth from 6ft to 20ft. The : ground ,- through which the digger breaks his way to the washdirt consists principally of clay, thickly impregnated with water-worn boulders. After staying there over six weeks, our informant discovered that it absorbed almost all hia earnings to procure 1:he : necessaries of life, and in: a fortnight fafter wards rations were not obtainable at any price. r Flour, was eagerly bought at from 4s to 6s a pannikan full, and meat was not procurable. Kangaroos were .eagerly sought after, and many of the diggers went out with a few dogs they had, and, it is averred, realised much more money by the sale of kangaroo meat than, the diggers earned by turning out gold at from ]oz to ' 3oz- per ton.' At length,: our: informant finding he could not live on the Palmer ■with provisions at famine prices, determined to go to Cooktown, despite the wet season, and come to Rbckhampton until the rain had ended. He accordingly left the diggings at the latter end of January, and the description of his journey to the port almost beggars description. From Rockhampton papers which ar- , rived, last night we (Northern Argus) cull . the following particulars in reference to the Palmer, obtained from passengers by the 1 Leicbardt :^-The hardships eridnrpd hv tin- tra'filpr i« no jnke. Emaciated m* v T»rriH I from under a bnsb at theroadakln, •<ru' ' ■■(■£ fr v little flfiur from the passer-by, jmtl even offer half an ounce of gold, but flur s ra<re precious than g^lrl, .and they solicit in vain. Some men ftbtually lived, or rather existed, on boiled -. grass for a week. A piece of horseflesh is : a luxury, and many travellers have had to subsist upon it, varied by a little roast or boiled dog ; no other food can be procured, as the; route to the diggings is through grass-tree, boggy country, ..arid ■ rio one can move an inch off the ma^ without sinking up to the knees— on* ' 'hprso went but of sight altogether. The " short route, telegraphed' as' having 1 been „ found out by Inspector Douglas, we were assured by a. gentleman who travelled it up and down, is all humbug; he • w aescribes it as the worst he ever came across in his life, and that all the old bands who have seen it condemn '• it and say that it is infinitely mV ferior in every way to Mr Mucmillan's or , ,the old track, being not a bit s 1 orter, anri : /nbthirig biit. a succession of terrible ranges ; in fact, that he never heard a ... ;' man so cursed in his life, and that he verUy believes if the diggers who were induced to try the "short road," got hold of him, they would have hung him. With : ... regard, to the reported richness of the diggings, we have al wards had burdoubt*.' ..■; and, we think it .a bad sign when old diggers are fossicking in old worked gullies instead : of trying new ones. The ; .bed of the Palmer is the hope of the : digger, and there is no doubt that gold . . is there, but in what quantity remains to -.] be seen. From all we can learn, through • .; : questipning or hearsay, from those who ; '■■•.. have worked on and visited these fields, ■ : we should consider them .good- diggings, but by no means deserving the reputation them. Men seem to be content with 4dw^a, day, ..which; is stated to be about the average earnings. Big finds '*'■'" j 'are oil all new diggings,-, andno.dpubt the Palmer can instance many of them ; but we feeLsatisfied there is nothing to warrant the rush North. :