The Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. FEIDAY, JUNE 4, 1886. KIMBERLEY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XII, Issue 1725, 4 June 1886, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Oldest Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. FEIDAY, JUNE 4, 1886. KIMBERLEY.

Seeing the exodus that is taking place, and likely to take place, to the n£w El Dorado, m. Western Australia, we deem it a duty to ithpress upon intending emigrants thither the vital importance of seriously considering the contingencies and risks attendant upon the journey to that remote region, and to bear m mind the vicissitudes and hardships that will certainly be the lot of a large proportion of those who wander to those distant lands m search of wealth. Many of our readers will remember similar occurrences, within the last thirty years, which have had most disastrous consummations. It was m 1859, if we remember aright, that the Port Curtis rush set m, which resulted so deplorably to hundreds of those who, too precipitately, ventured on a journey from which, for them, there was to be no return. Heat and malaria carried off the diggers m hundreds, and as the Wanganui Herald points ' out, had the Victorian and New. South Wales Governments not sent vessels to Port Curtis to rescue the foolish crowds who rushed off to that field, utterly unprepared to grapple with the difficulties which beset them, thousands of diggers would have perished m that memorable stampede. As it was, the " Victoria w hail to lay off th& harbour, and prevent the vessels leaving with- j out taking away the deluded people j they had landed there. Had they been allowed to sail away without their quota of passengers, a terrible calamity would Jiavefoeea

hac| to „have been chronicled ; as it was, the number who lost their lives amnmted to several hundreds. Remembering vividly this almost forgoiten episode m the history of Australian gold discoveries, and that tfiis newest claimant for auriferous lime lies right m the tropics and a loig way inland, our Wanganui contemporary considers it should be venting m its duty were it not to print out to those who may read ttese lines, and who may be thinking ef trying their luck at Kimberlby, that the dangers and hardships Tirhich lie between them are of the most grave nature, and calculated to tause any sensible man to pause anil think twice before throwing up his present prospects for' others of suJh doubtful results. No doubt a fef will survive all the dangers and hardships, and will gain a sudden enrichment, but they will be few jjhd far between. The Wellington Prm writes on the same subject as follows : — Every rush since those to California and Victoria has been iiuch the same sort of thing, on a greater or lesser seale — the same mad precipitancy, the same blind disregard of consequences, the same impatience of counsel or restraint ; and whatever may be said about it, we have no doubt the Kimberley rush is going to be very similar m those respects to all previous rushes. When we hear of nuggets being picked up, weighing two or three pounds, of one man getting over 500 ounces from a rich patch, of thousands of ounces being brought into Derby, we know very well what is going to happen. Unless very discouraging news indeed should come soon, there will be a stampede to Kimberley from all the colonies J such as has not occurred for a great many years. It is aheacly m full swing m Australia and it has also begun from New Zealand. Luckily for them, the long distance and the heavy expense will prevent the more helpless class from going to certain destruction ; but to those who are m a position to go, and who have a fancy that way, the temptation is fast becoming irresistible. We do not share the fears of those who think New Zealand will lose\iu the general sense by the rush to'i Kimberley. Tropical Australia is not a place for white men to live iV permanently ; and we doubt no* that those who go there from herice to reap a golden harvest, will soon return bringing their sheaves vith them. Meanwhile, a large mining community m such a situation vill provide New Zealand with the nnrket she could have for her products. It will be hard if a great .part of the Kimberley gold does not come here m the long run.