THE QUEENSLAND DIGGINGS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIII, Issue 562, 23 March 1868, Page 3

THE QUEENSLAND DIGGINGS.

fOunensUnd Times, 20th February.] We seem to have entered on a new era in Queensland —the golden age. Dio monster Curtis nugget has evidently tinned the heads of u great many people, and the rush t'-ut is now setting into the Alary River diggings promises to be as memorable as any that ever took place in th» AuAtVdaii colonies. g u great is tlmmovement of p-ople expected to be that the G-oveniin, i)t, it appears, have determined rot to take a census { ,f the population on the 2nd of Id arch next, although they havejust induced Parliament to pass a hi I, wind) is now law, declaring Hint yudi census be taken.” it is said that i-nv-makers Simula be law breakers. \\ e trunk ),liat the Ac' , b>-ng among our ought to be carried out, even al i though it be true, as Air Taylor says, tint half tho people have left Toowomba. We have Lie assurance of Air WaNh, that, if they once get to Wide Eav, they will never again think of settling’down‘in the territories of King James-, so that, it the census is wantc 1 specialv for the purpose of regulating electoral reform, there ‘will not be much use i n waiting, so farms Toowoomba is concerned.

\\ r entei-tam very serious apprehensions ns to the results likely to follow so sudden a concentration of people in one spot as will take place i n the course of the next iew weeks at the Marv River gold-field. . e hading of a thousand ounces of gold in one lump wid have more effect on men’s imaginations than if ten times the quantity had been raised and more equally distribu ed ; and yet it ought not to influence iliom nearly so much, for on the last suo posit ion the chances of individual success Mould be much greater. It would puzzle an>one, we suppose, fo savhow the Curtis nugget got. where it was found ; it would puzzle them still more to sav whether others will ho found like it ; and the gieatest difficulty ot all would be to point out their locality. Of course, supposing tnat there arc actually other big nugges on the spot, then the larger number of peoule looking for them the more likely tliev are to be t timed up ; but individual chances are diminished nevertheless—unless, indeed, the extent of payable country should prove to be practically unlimited, which, Mhatever we may wish or hope, we cer tainly have no rigid to expect. A corres nondent signing himself “ An Old Digger from A ictoria and New South Whiles,” writing from Anshville to the Toowoomba Chronicle, esp-essos the hope that the people of Toowoomba “ will not be so iool-.sh as to run to a place where there are from 15,000 to 20 O'D people.” We -ee no objection to the number of people, provided there is plentv of pr-fit able occupation for them. Dut llm writer goes on lo say—after having rep jrted the -hiding of the big nugget ;

U liat good goes Uni its a person that conics now V 1 have V-ca miles all i-"-.ii'l, and

I acre is not a gully or creek, or ev.-a a A,< tlial is iii any way likely lor a hit of a iVi. !■ .i -vli-r, has • ■ecii tried mall directions. It K the n;-mi-m ~i several oM Miner.- that there v. ill he gi-.-ai ilo-ii-.ulion hero i ol- :v very lo;;,;, There arc Ihm.m i,i.

nf men knocking about with their picks, suovois, :uul tin ‘.iriu-s. rout u’ they see nuiioi .ii,_r acv

way out of town there is a rush. Well. M-v.-i-iil hundred men make oil'in that directi m, ami. alter all, find it a hoax. A few week-- ago a rest, took place out to a locality called Vaber, 1 was told by a Toowoomba man that- alter they wont out lorly-jive mile.- the poor follows came bark cursing the place. Now Jlr I alitor, 1 uni you for a candid fact, it is not at nil the gold that is being got here t-oit is causing .-neb a stir. There is no man coming here without fetching with him a feu- pounds, and tli.it is what causes such a trade to be carried on. The• ncw-comnmrs are holding out as long as they have a shilling, and of course they must have something lo eat; and where there arc such a number of men, there must be trade carried on with the storekeepers.

There is probably a very great deal in those latter remarks—more, we fear, than people generally will be disposed at first to believe. W c do not of course mean that considerable quantities of "old are not being obtained, but we fear the quantity is nut quite so large as the great number of people at work renders it- desirable that it sb’-uM be. \\ e should like to see the escort more heavily laden, for, although it may be true Inat the diggers object to the scale of charges, and th 'refore risk sending a groat deal by private hands, still this in only surmise or assertion, and it would be much more satisfactory to know for certain that the yield was, to some extent, proportionate to the largo mini her of persons on the ground.