Disappointed Diggers Returning.

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

Disappointed Diggers Returning.

The following letter j dated Wyndham, Cambridge Gulf, sth August, has been received from an old Ballarat miner, whose gold prospecting experiences date from 1853;- " Arrived here on the 25th June last, and have bgen here since. A reaction back from. ' Kimberley has now set in in earnest, although the rash still continues, chiefly from New 2tealand and Mew South Wales. Disappointed diggers arrive here daily from. Kimberley, wearied and crestfallen, detailing woeful accounts of their adventures there. They allege that there is no gold, getting, nor no chance until the wet sets in, it any then. The dabs or patches found about a month ago are now worked out. and nothing fresn dißCOvored since, and all that time it was nothing to warrant a rush such ac tho present. The value of the field has been greatly exaggerated;* Much suffering and misery will be felt era thi<j excitsraeut is ended. The Derby men are all suffering from fever and scurvy, the. former illneßS brought about by the great extent of low marahy country that has to be travelled to get to the fiald, the latter illness | by bad living. " All the old hands are going back before the rain to try their luck, and I am going to join them, and no doubt something wifl. be discovered. If the diggers are behind extravagant expectations this place will then live, owing to the noble Gulf and: natural highway, trending 75 miles into the land, navigable with ita inlets, to aseist the explorer in developing the resources of this partly known land If the gold is not there the progress will not be so rapid as otherwise : yet I have seen good samples, and where they came from there must be more. I must confess that 1 have been, disappointed and suffered some losa on this trip, but I hope £ will pull up in the finish. When I visit the field I will then be able to* speak and write more definitely from pereanal knowledge of my subject."