QUEENSLAND.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 16, 14 December 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

QUEENSLAND.

(From the Sydney Hail) The Peak Downs Gold Fields. — Writing on tho 30th ultimo, from Rockhampton, the special correspondent of the Courier says : — The chief topic of tbe day is the Peak Downs gold fields. It is, I may say, almost tbe only one. Gold, gold — nothing but gold is talked of. Every one you meet either asks for news lrom the Peak Downs, or retails a little bit of information on the same matter which he has obtained from some one else, and sometimes the tales you must hear are of the wildest and most improbable kind. How these extravagant fictions get wind is wonderful. There are always some credulous people who believe them implicitly, and who generally pass them on to other credulous people — and . so on. Tbe sources whence these absurdities spring are always undiscoverable — they are generally put down to the credit of some mythical disrger who has lately arrived in town with ever so many ounces of gold in his possession. It is a remarkable fact that you c&u never meet with any one who has actually seen this fortunate fellow and his treasure, though you will find dozens of men who know other men who have " bad the nuggets in their bands." One hardly knows what to say about the diggings. I have seen some gold, it is true, and I have heard of a great deal more than 1 have seen ;

but there is something ominous in the discontented whispers that from time to time are audible amid the cries of triumph and laudation. Here, for instance, are a few extracts from the letters of the Bulletin's special correspondent at the Peak Downs, which certainly do not give a very flattering picture of the gold-fields : — " 'jfhe events of the past -week have not been of so exciting a character as those of the three preceding. Many of those diggers who left for the New Rush have returned, and others are daily following the example. Some who left good wages-paying claims return to find them either Worked out or occupied by other persons — thus exemplifying the fabled dog with his meat, and the reflection of it in the water. Consequently the rush may be pronounced to be at an end, though whether this be on account of the absence of water or of gold in the locality it is impossible for me to say. As water is scarcely to be had, even for drinking purposeg, much less for gold washing, the majority of diggers have " moved on " to a place about seven miles, where the Only water is to be had, and in which neighborhood they can prospect. Why the recent discovery of two gold yielding: gullies (a small extent of which only proved rich) has caused so much excitement in Rockhampton I am at a ! loss to comprehend, for most certain it is that whiht one has made a hundred pounds, fifty have not made as many shillings — in fact, many have not made rations ; and some who left the certainty of regular wages at the Copper Mine will have cause for regret when their cheques are " knocked down " and provisions raised up to famine prices. Already flour has been reluctantly sold at fifteen pence per pound ; and though a recent arrival of that article reduced the price to one shilling, it is far from being unlikely that half-a-crown will be ihe quotation ere long. Sugar is not to be bad at any price ; the stores have none, and I know of men who have had to live on beef aloue fir more than a week. Such a state of things ought surely to have some effect on the minds of those who would leave a comfortable home, however humble, in Rockhampton, to search for what they are sure to find — a little gold, and a ' plentiful lack * of the common necessaries of life. The inference to be drawn from this is not by any means favorable to the Peak Downs goldfields. No sane man, 1 fancy, would on the chance of obtaining a " little gold,'' run the risk of starvation. Better to live at home poor and happy than to die in the bush, and to die of hunger too.