Off to Kimberley.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XII, Issue 1741, 23 June 1886, Page 4

Off to Kimberley.

A MrD. J. Fraser, now of Te Aroha, hftabodsomecxperieuceof the climate of that part of Australia, and half a dozen Kimberleys would not tempt him there again. He writes to the New Zaat nd BeraMy telling aameihmg ot what he knows, and liia letter is worthy of careful consideration by those who are thinking of going to tempt iortnne at Khnbcrley. h 1 formed one of a com--paay who were duped into going to a place named Camden harbour, intend m > to form a settlement. Camden harbour is about 150 miles south of CaMl»rid«e Gulf. We were induced to j?o there by reading the report which Sir George Grey gave of the country and climate, which report, allow me to Bay, differed as much from the real fact of the place as Ihe climate of New Zealand differs from that of the Soudan . I can gafely affirm that, if there it a rush from New Zealand to Kimberley, very few indeed will return to their homes or families again. It is no climate for + white man to work m. New Zealand•rs would die like sheep there. When I was there it was m December, and the heat wasintense. The thermometer registered 140 deg. m the shade for six hours each day. I saw strong Australians trying to work at getting their provisions and other goods # carried a little above the reach of the tide, and failing, because their strength succumbed to the heat. I saw a man die there each day of the week out of 130, and at the end of three months only 90 of the total remained. The bones of the other 40 are there now. 1 have seen the grass grow there nine feet hiflfh m a few weeks, and sheep fed on it only weighed 161 b, the quality of the feed was so poor. Ido not write thus to seek to terrify with what cannot be substantiated. There are others m New Zealand who were there at the same time as well as myself, and who had not the means of getting away from it at the time I came way, but stayed until the Perth Government sent a steamer to bring the remainder away. These could tell you many sad tales of their hardships i- not hardships through want of provisions (because of that there was ample), but hardship brought about by thirst and heat." After this doleful picture of the possible fate awaiting the seeker after gold at Kimberley, Mr Fraser writes, " I cannot say whether there are rich goldfields there or not, or whether gold is easy, to find or not, but ' this I can say, that for the working men of New Zealand Kimberley is no place, and you had better stay here with only such proßpeots of making a rise as the goldfields of New Zealand offer you. Why risk your health and lives m a country where perhaps your chances of securing wealth are quite as remote as they are here, and where for every ten of you who go and stay there for any length of time five will stay there until the day of judgment, and one of the other five may return with plenty of the needfnl, but of the majority that will come back they will be but poor specimens of the healthy sons of New Zealand they once were." He concludes his letter m these words : — "Take the advice ■ otan Australian, and wait for the coun y try to be opened up before you go. There y, is plenty of time, if the field is only half m good it is represented to be."