THE KIMBERLEY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XII, Issue 1739, 21 June 1886, Page 4

THE KIMBERLEY.

&N EXPLORER'S OPINION OF THE |^' V FIELD.

;The following is on extraot from a by the explorer O'Donneil to a friend m Melbo»irne,dated View Hill, JiGambridjje Gulf, March 20 last : - ||f*. Since writing you last I have had i*an interview with MoPhee, who came itjßpw:n from the diggings the day we tSwriYed here. He speaks most faf? : : tonrably of the diggings, and inif formed me that there are some fifty Wat sixty men up there prospecting on f. the Ord, Margaret, Pan ton, and Bl- £ vira rivers, and that they are allgetf: ting gold. He has himself shown me a parcel of coarse gold which he p^has Drought down, — about 2oz— a of 30oz got by his party m a [few days. It is a very good sample, 6 being very olean and coarse, arid >':' several of the pieces being from 4 f. dwt to 6 dwt. They often get 3oz a t- day- This lot he got m a few days, an entirely different locality from fc jhat where it is reported that other ■Ho . : wore getting plenty of gold. would not have oome down ■ovr, but he had entirely ran ont of Hratiuus, and came down here for supBTplies. He ha« left his party where Who found geld. He returns with me r tomorrow, ond we will travel as <_■ quickly as possible to the scene of the J diggings, from whence I hopetosen<? f you a good report shortly. £ "We will leave the river about 40 - T miles from here and then travel to " the West of it and West of Carr Boyd Range Lake on to the head of | the Brow, and to the West of the % Bough Rauges I met with on ruy : first trip, and from thence across the 7 low broken ranges to the head of the Ord, thence to Punton and Elvira, ; which latter place I hope to reach- m a little ovei 200 miles. Wh«n 1 arrived heie I found several prospectors waiting for a chance to go to the diggings. I have made arrangements •' with them to travel wiih me, 1 carry- ; ing iheir swags and digging implements, and feeding thenv on tiro way. "The more good m«n that reach the scene of the 'Jiggiujis the better it will be for the country. At the present time there are no pack horses here to "■ pack the provisions ou to the diggings, consequently the necessaries of ; life are very dear. I understand all " the gold fmod up to the present time ; has bten got m cneks and gulliws, without any labour iv digging. P.S. . —The enclosed information re the ■'■" goldfield.s is authentic, as M'Phee has hiuiself given it to me, and he is a reliuble man. (Signed; W. J, OD." Sydney Telegraph, May 27. '■■■- uA. rush" is an apt turn to describe the outcome of a rich gold discovery, and Lhat a rush has set m 't for the Kiiuberley . gold (i elds is everywhere made evident . Means getting fchoro aie being advertise.! m various forms; offers to yo, willingness to ''rough it" there and m getting there are innumerable. But ihe clearest demonstration of the externof the " rush" was given on Saturday afternoon, when one crowded steamer left the wharf bound for the nearest port to the field*, and another put off into the stream to leave ou the following morning. The opening up of a new goidfield is truly a ru<h m p every sense of the word. Within the shortest possible time thousands of people have prepared themselves to go, and m the Knottiest possible notice steamers have been got ready to can y them. A vast number of miners, have satisfied themselves — and too often they are too easily eati.-fied ■ —'■ , that there is lots of gold at Kimberiey, and'believing that ihe sooner there v^tfie better, they have gone. Hunr dreds of others are almost ready to ' go, and thoußtiids will go as soon as they have obtained what they con sider reliable information of the richness of tlu» field. They are undismayed by disiance, climate or expense, - while the inconvenii nces of travelling there receive only£pasfung considerat~ tion. .The fortunes made m the good i old times' on Bendlgo, Ballarat, and %" other goldb'elds ai*e vividly pictui'ed and remembered, while the fortunes lost are couveuiontl.v forgotten. A rush is often regarded as the practical miner's only chance of amassing and a rush having set m at Kimberiey, those who have money . enough to land them there are prepared to take their chance by seeing %■ tor themselves. Th<;y stand not upon f t^e ovder of their going, and so the , promptness of their dispatch outpace« that of the Soudan expedi-? tion.