THE SUDEST GOLDFIELD). A POOR PROSPECT. FEVER AND LAWLESSNESS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 321, 1 December 1888, Page 6

THE SUDEST GOLDFIELD). A POOR PROSPECT. FEVER AND LAWLESSNESS.

Advices from Cooktown state that the ketch Activity had arrived there from the island of Rudest, with 20 diggeib, mobt of whom were suffering irom laser. Ib appears that about a fortnight ago heavy ram fell all over the i&lann, and fever then set in. It generally attacks the victim mo-.t acutely in the small of the back, utterly prostrating him. The men who ha^e returned by the Activity say that the next vessel from the island will be crowded. The present population is about 400, and decidedly too many for the lesomces of the Held. Heavy rain Jell for a week and literally Hooded the various camps. The men at work were drenched to the skin during the day, and being unable to light fires or do any cooking on their return to camp, they -were compelled to go to bed hungry, tired, and damp. After rain, which fell in torrents, the fever set in. Many miners suffered, and one, Jam eg Hodgson, died. A protection area has been applied for by a man named Hurley, who reported having discovered a goldbearing reef 18in. thick, seven miles from the beach camp, in a feouth-west direction. Quart/ specimens have been got in the main creek heavi'y impregnated with gold, There are goodlooking reefb of ironstone and quartz on the island, but when the sbone is tested it is found to be barren and rough. The gold obtained, however, in alluvial, point*, to the presumption that rich reotsaienot not far away. On the sth November a daring attempt was made by speilers to rob Gor3 and Champion's tent, which is kept as a, general store. During the day a man known as a speiler changed a £10-note, and aw where the money was kept, in a box near the end of the tent. About midnight Champion woke and found' two men in the act of carrying off' the box containing £300. He called out " Who's there?' and drew hisrevolver, but did not fire, and the men made off. An examination showed that the* strings of the tent had been cut, making access easy. It was afterwards found out that two suspected men engaged the cntie'r'l Lizzie to;take them away from the Island early in the morning. N ,* \