A Letter from Coolgardie.

Manawatu Herald, 9 March 1895, Page 2

A Letter from Coolgardie.

Mr Gus Walsh, brother to our townsman Mr John Walsh, has recently sent him an interesting letter from the goldfields of Western Australia, which he has visited to win that fortune all gold^seekers believe come to stout hearts and hands. The letter is too long for reproduction, but we have been permitted to extract portions. In writing of the heat, Afr Walsh says :— I am given to understand the thermometer in Coolgardie nr about 120 degrees in the shade, I do not myself doubt it for one moment, and as our property is considerably _ to the north and consequently nearer' P ths tropical zone, and is moreover I situated on. the very edge of one- of . those so-called salt lakes, (whit '%*:'" mockery they are, as they could bft called in all truth a sand plain) the heat can be better imagined than described. lam sorry that I had nd . means of ascertaining the exact' temperature but I can give you some idea of the power of the direct riys * of the sun during the middle of the month of December, which I saw and had good cause to remember^ A billy I had taken with me to work, which was about half full of tea, became so hot after an hour's exposure that it was' alttibM v nxlrinkable and the sides and lid ; were in

exactly, the same condition as they would have been if the billy and contents had been placed upon the fire. It did rain once whett the writer j^ was at Coolgardie, and he has rather 3* a bad opinion of 'he action of the authorities, waiting:— The water which fell was in a state of puritjr, but through man's neglect of cleanliness, it has become nothing less than a. huge nursery of the germs of Typsßfd, in the government tanks. ' The if not used for drinking still permits the germs to spread to the tanks used by the condensers and thus amongst the throngs of customers, daily. It makes one shudder to think of the terrible scourage the people of Coolgardie have made for their own backs. Things are in a similar state at Hannan's, White Feather and Kur- » nalpie. The writer got the fever and went to a private hospital at Freemantle, where be was so well attended that "he should strongly recommend anyone who is suffering from any complaint that requires constant attention to go to one of the best of these private hospitals as the attend* ance and care bestowed on the patients cannot be surpassed." We are glad to report Mr Walsh's complete recovery. It appears probable that our erstwhile townsman is going to a still hotter place— on earth we mean, as he is engaged in a prospecting party to go further north, close upon the Tropic of Capricorn. He mentions something of a gigantic scheme to supply Coolgardie with water. The property held by Mr G. Walsh and his mates he shows by a sketch and mentions : — You will see By the position of our claim, and that of Lord Sudley's, that we did not peg out without good cause and a fair amount of prospect of some of the rich shoot of gold which showed so richly in Lord Sudley's coming our way. By the way, I saw the prospectors hole just after it was opened up, the stone was just one mass of glittering gold, enough to set any man's blood on fire. The reported price paid for this lease by Lord Sudley to the prospectors, was £40,000. A word of warning, gained by experience, is given :— -It is the heighth of folly for anyone to leave constant employment to come here, as, in the first place, the alluvial digging has proved, and is generally acknowledged to be on all sides a rankjuffer. Those who are lucky are chronicled to the skies, but little is said of the thousands of poor, sun cracked, hide-bound, dirty, thirsty, Jj* swearing, disappointed diggers carrying their life constantly in their hands, toiling under a burning sun midst clouds of thick, choking dust, for the shining metal, which, when found, ofttimes seems, and is, but a poor recompense for the toil and ganger gone through to obtain it. ' Prostfeojjing is lull of unexpected difficulties;. Water is, of course, the greater source of anxiety, for one can get no information from the blacks, as the penalty for divulging where " gabbin " or water is to be found is death by his tribe, and he will suffer torture rather than give his knowledge to aid the white men.