KIMBERLEY GOLDFIELD. Bad News.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 170, 18 September 1886, Page 4

KIMBERLEY GOLDFIELD. Bad News.

Brisbane September 8. An old miner named Webb, who has just returned to tbii city from Klmberley, gives a moßt disheartening account o! the goldfield. He rays that when he left Wyndham there were ieven hundred men there waiting to take return passages by steamer. Cooktown, September 18.— The steamer Catterthun, from Foochow (August 22), via Port Darwin (September 3), whiob arrived here yesterday, brought nearly 200 diggers from Kimberley. Of this number 40 are proceeding to Sydney. These men all give bad accounts of the goldfields. , The following extracts are from a letter written by H. O'Orady, manager of th« Bast Kimberley Supply Store, to his brother in Sydney. The writer heads his commission :— " Derby, Kimberley district, August 10, 1886," and says: "I have now fairly commenced business, and the store and warehouse are finished. People are flocking to this place very fast, and are landing in hundreds. There are already here seven public houses and any number of stores. Now, judging by the reports of people just arrived, there i appears to be a great diversity of opinion as to the best landing place and route for the fields, Cambridge Gulf or Derby : Ica« assure you that the Derby route is the better. The route from Cambridge Gulf is fifty miles, shorter, being only 300 miles in all ; but it is only traversible by packs, drays being useless on account of hilly and rocky nature of the country. Thirty drays had to return lately, being unable to go by that route. Now, to give you an idea of the Derby route—men are starting off from here daily with wheelbarrows. The road is like a bowling green all the way. All the barrow wheels I had in store have been *sold, and now have lcwt of provisions for the diggings upon each. Just fancy an array of men with barrows starting for a journey of 350 miles ! 26 camels have just arrived, which we will utilise for takiDg supplies to the fields. I intend to form depots along the route at intervals of about one hundred miles. . . The steamer Triumph, which arrived here yesterday, has brought 280 diggers and 170 borees, with the necessary equipments. The men, as usual, are of all kinds of trades and callings. There are at present 1,000 men on the field ; and 1,000 more at Cambridge Gulf, and bOO at Derby, ready to proceed there. I would not advise you to think of coming here for a while, until such time as the field and town are well established. I will let you know, of course, how thiops progress here. Four months will tell a wonderful tale of this place, on account of its being the rainy season, that being the best time for travelling. We have every prospect of doing well. The lighterage business alone is a gold-field. Do all you can to persuade persons coming to Kimberley that Derby is the proper place to land. The weather here at the present time is simply splendid. The nights are, at times, bitterly cold. At mid-day the sun is warm. I will take every chance of letting you know the real and true particulars from here."