THE KIMBERLEY RUSH.

Pahiatua Star and Eketahuna Advertiser, Volume 1, Issue 34, 1 October 1886, Page 3

THE KIMBERLEY RUSH.

AN UNFAVORABLE ACCOUNT. Among those who left Canterbury for Kimberley by the s.s. Triumph (says the Lyttelton Times) was Mr Iti flies, a West African native, favourably known in Christchurch in connection. with the formation of the Prison Gate mission, lie remained five weeks in Derby ; and during that jierioil saw enough to make him return to Christchurch, which he did at tho expense of something like t'HO. A man of considerabtu common sense and of good principle, his statements may be relied upon we a correct representation of what he saw and heard. AN UNFAVOKARIJI PIOTtHF.. •• I went on shore on the Monday after the Triumph arrived," said Mr Refills. "I got ashore about Iff at , night, but could not get my tent and ' luggage till n week after. A man who j hiol settled there before me, kindly al- , lowed me to sleep in his tent for tho time. After 1 had been at Derby [ about a fortnight. Sergeant Trov mode j a report, saying that ffOozs of gold hud I been got on the field ill about three ' weeks. None of tho men at Derby , ever saw any gold, though. During ! tlio week after tliis report, numbers of 1 the niuu, sometime* twenty in a day, | conic to my Uut, and waited my advice.

saying. • Yon are a Blue Ribbon man, and don't drink ; we would sooner take advice from'yon- We ban no money, and don’t kuow what to do tc keep ourselves from starving.’ I told them 1 could not advise them what to do, but that I would not see them starve while 1 had got anything. They often came to me for a drink of tea or coiloe l after that, and sometimes when I baked bread I had to give them the best part of it, for 1 could not sue them starve. Most of these men had come from Queensland and other parts of Australia. Those who camo from New Zealand mostly had money and provisions of their own. I could get no work to do while I was at Derby—l was there five weeks—and I lived on “ what 1 brought from Christchurch. I had to pay dearly for my own things too. It cost me 80s to got my provisions from the steamer to the tent. CLIMATE. “ I found tho climate most awful. I am a native of Sierra Leone, and can stand a pretty hot climate, but I couldn't stand that at Derby. From G to 7 in the morning you see a bluish vapour, liko steam, rising out of tho earth, the same as I have seen on tho West Coast of Africa. It is very injurious to health. In the day time the weather is clear and hot, very hot indeed, and at night it is very cold, with heavy dew. The ground is nothing but red sand, ankle deep, even in what they call the main street of Derby. The flies, too, are dreadful. The people who went there can’t stand the climate. Eleven men wero laid up with scarlet fever while I was there. The worst of it is that many of the men have not enough to eat; they are on the point of starving, and are too weak to stand against the climate. I wont to see some of them in their tents, and it was dreadful to look at them. Some of the men had to lie there alone without food or anything else, except what their neighbors gave them. You see several of thorn are living almost entirely on tho fish they can catch at the jetty when the tide is out. I have seen 40 or 50 men fishing there at a time, with their lines crossing each other. Sometimes they would hardly get a single fish. THE DIFFICULTIES OF DEPARTURE. “ Tlio weather got hotter as spring came on, and the sun was so strong as to blister my feet through the boots. I packed up all my things to go to the fields, and the Warden, Mr Price, wanted mo to be cook for the escort. He wanted me to pay my own expenses of getting to the field. I was willing to do that, but the doctor told me not to go, as thero was no good prospect. I went to Mr Price ami asked him how I was to get back if the field turned out to be no good. He said that thoro would be plenty of teams on the road by and bye. That was not good enough for me. and I told him I would not go unless my expenses were paid. He said lie could not do that, but he would find me

plenty to do if I went. I declined to go, and just R 9 I was going away from him I naw the steamer Albany coming in. I went on board and arranged with the captain to take mo away. I found that unless you are willing to give the place a good name you can’t get away, for the captains won't take you. You see, you might say something which would stop the traffic to the place. When some of the storekeepers heard I was going away they me if I was going to give the _ o laco a good name or a bad one. 1 .. mi In nut. them off hv navinir that I

,u 10 pui mein ou Dy baying mai i /I not seen much wrong. I went card on August G, but the steamer 'n’t get atvay till August 10. TBOVBL.US AHEAD. I am afraid there will bo a big row before long, because there is fft danger of the people starving, tlio Government foremen was by two men on the fields as lie W! Vading bis dray one night. The twQ eu were not caught, and 1 think t^ie ilid it because they thought l‘° "something to do with bringing A man shot himself on ‘.lie rc between Derby and Kmiberloy. lie money and no food, and *f°t Dvs«lf in despair. I heard some o. the that tlioy would shoot a) tlioiyJbo bad had anything to do wih eaiiy them to go there, and slant tli*nlvos afterwarils. I know frUa wha j. liw , that many of them wen stnrv.A; and, besides, they were shut uf wluch sold a shilling a huwet. 1 c\ld not get any meat for a feuiiglu. .Flour cost Is for 1001., and niton, where there was any,yd. a 1L and terrible trash at that.i “ 4ogetheit»erby is A MU*u>l.E HOLE, and lias glad 1 get away. Had I stayedlmre Ion; I should have spent what lie mom "1 had, and should not bat been übYo get away. There were a hit 70 on hoard the Albiy when iu left Derby, and more th| 2UO inetcame to the Cap tain andfked Jet them work their p»lge awn; from the place. He couldiu do and some of them sbd on and criod like board bad ply enoug money to pay llieir parens to AsLLrton, or Champion Day, y- where they landed in Ihes that ley might get | Borne worki, do, it th, )ro is more • prospect of.k,loymet4hai, at Derby. | Cambridge Qlf, l bear, is ■ os bad OS Dufc."