The Kimberley Diggings. Deplorable State of Affairs. Port Darwin, November 17.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 180, 27 November 1886, Page 2

The Kimberley Diggings. Deplorable State of Affairs. Port Darwin, November 17.

Hundreds of diggers are regularly leaving the Kimberley diggings. The. schooner Mist arrived from Cambridge Gulf on Thursday with 130 diggers, and theschooner Budgaree arrived yesterday with 90. All are disgusted with the field* There iB positively nothing in alluvial, but good returns are expected from the reefs* About 500 men will remain on the field through the wet season, and the ground will then be thoroughly tested. M'phee's Cbkek, September 22. The worst possible account of failure disappointment, and. hardships continue to come in from all sides. Men are on the move daily from one camp to another and all have the same cry — " Nothing doing anywhere." I imagined that long ere this the, rush would have been stopped, but by the number of freah arrivals who are coming in, hundreds must be en route. Yesterday I was an eye-witness to & most pitiable spectacle. Whilst conversing with six new arrivals from New Zealand*, two of them (big, strong, bronzed, bearded men), positively shed tears whilet recounting their troubles and disappointments at having come over here. They said they had been small farmers in Maoriland, but when, the news of the great finds of gold in tbi» territory continued to appear in the daily papers they sold out everything they possessed and came over with all possible speed. Scores of others have done the same thing, and hundreds who have arrived from the different colonies are positively ruined, aa tbey expended their last pounds in providing outfits, and are now working 10 and 12 hours daily without averaging a pennyweight ot gold per day. Nearly all would return, but they have not the means to got back, add are working on, hoping that they may eventually strike a rich patch. I regret to s-tate that anothea murderous, outrage has been perpetrated by the blacke*. Positive details have not reached me, but, after interviewing several miners who ar~ rived to-day from the locality, I gleaned the following information : — A few nights ago, whilst five men were asleep in their tent (which was pitched near the Pantom River, fiome 60 miles north «£ M'Phee Creek, the threw &. shower of spears at them. One of them, was speared in the side, and another in the neck. The latter died almost immediately, and without a groan, but the injuries of the other man are nat of a serious character. The blankets protected the remainder of the part, and they escaped without a scratch. By the time the three who were not injured became awake there was not the slightest sign of a black in the neighbourhood.

A mountain of alum has been discovered along the Gila River. The mountain is ovei a mile square, and some of the cliffs rise te an elevation of 700 feet above the river bed. Most of the alum is in an impure state, and tasting very strongly of sulphuric acid but of which thore seems to be an inexhaustibU quantity. Some of the cliffs, however, shem immense quantities of almost pure market able alum, This alum find is on the GiU River, about two miles below the fork d of the little Gila and four miles below tb* Gila hot springs