NEW SOUTH WALES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 626, 6 November 1858, Page 5

NEW SOUTH WALES.

.By way of Auckland we have news to'the 1 ilh ult. The accounts from the, Fitzßoy diggings are most contradictory ; from all sources we -select the following: The * Sydney Morning Herald' of the 9th October says :— " . Rumours were current in the city yesterday afternoon of important intelligence having been received bythe Government relative to the goldfields at Port Curtis. Upon enquiry, we find that the facts are these: Information has been communicated to the Government, not .officially, and to, other parties, that the area of the Northern gold-fields is much larger than was anticipated. The field has been examined from the diggings, near Rockhampton, and the gold-bearing ground extends, or is said to extend, to Broad Sound, a distance of fifty miles. The same informant, who has an appointment on the diggings, states that there are 600 men at work, and all doing well. We strictly guard our readers from receiving this information as positively authentic, or as being derived from.. official sources, which would .convey any such impressions. We have always been courteously favoured by the Government with the reports from the goldfields, and have no doubt that any official intelligence which can prudently be published, we shall be able to obtain, and whether good or bad, we shall at once lay it before our readers. The same paper on the 1 lth ult. mentions:— The Boomerang (s) left Brisbane on the Sth instant, and was boarded in the river by a boat from the Waratah (s), which' left Rockhampton , on the 4th instant.- The chief officer, who was j in change of the boat, told Captain O'Reilly that j the' intelligence from the Fitzroy was most j gloomy, and that the diggings were a complete \ failure, and that there were thirty-five returned diggers on board; beyond this the Boomerang brings no other report later than those already received by the Yarra Yarra (s). The cargo on board the Boomerang consists of 39 pzs. gold j from Rockhampton, and a few sundries, from j Moreton Bay. Captain O'Reilly has in his pos- ! session 5.£ .ounces of gold, purchased by him from I a party at Rockhampton, who had 100 ounces, ! which he had obtained from the diggers in : exchange for meat. The Auckland papers give the following extract from a private letter: — The excitement about these gold fields continued with unabated fury, until Monday last, when the City of Sydney steamer arrived, bringing back a number of would-be diggers who, having heard rumours of there being no gold, turned tail without ever visiting the diggings and judging for themselves. This unexpected return caiised a thorough damper upon the whole affair, and numbers of tickets were sold for ss. each, which, by the way, were readily bought up by the Melbourne diggers, who are determined to give the new fields a fair trial.

In contrast to this, we learn from the 4 Sydney Herald' of the 9th, that more than 45 vessels had sailed from Sydney for the Fitzroy Diggings, Those vessels varied from 80 to 1000 tons burthen. 3233 persons had left Sydney, and the vessels then on the berth were calculated to carry 1500 raofe. Sailing ships, steamers, and