THE SUD-EST GOLDFIELD.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 381, 29 June 1889, Page 5

THE SUD-EST GOLDFIELD.

The Curlew> with ,ten passengers, and the Lucy, andt Adelaide, *wibh fifteen, arrived afc ,Qooktown lasb,s\Yednesday from Sud-Est. •The ,- continued/* rain. afc_ $L • • Aignari ,has ,' caused;, much . Jever, f'and ,;many have, , resulted. •„ A prospecting j: party_ returned -irpm. Eossell ; * only .colours were - obtained/ St. Aignan is r put . where available for joining. ; Sud-Est is more healthy. Gold iis / still being, gob.', On,, the, last trip ot^ the , Curlew, on -ther,24jbh 'May, after tea,) James%oliver, who for, several .days had shown sign's of madness, cut the throat of- Thomas Hanrahan, a Croydon -miner, t his mate, inflicting a deep "gash 4' inches long, but under the chin and high up. Oliver refused to surrender the knife, jumped overboard and was drowned. The vessel wasunderdouble reefs a'^ thVtime, •and it was impossible to 1 lower a boat.

WARNING' '^ROM AN,. AUCK- . i LANDER. ) Mr James , Thorn'ton,' forpaerly of Auckland, wh'o*is now Town Clerk of the Municipality of Norman ton, Queensland^ writes : "I nave just received a copy of your issue of the4th May,Jinwfiich I see a 'local'stating that Messrs Purchas and' Co. (a hew firm since! left Auckland ,ls* months ago) are arranging to' lay on a' vessel for the SudEst Gqldfield. Isincerely trust'thjsy have not' succeeded in their enterprise, for it means not only certain loais,' disappointment, 1 har^sMp, 'and suffering, butprobable deltruction.* When this'rush firs 6 J became known here and in Cooktown a few months back a1"a 1 " great exodus took' place, with the result .that" 'the 'few 'men that did not leave ' HTieir . bones there' * returned with shattered *' penniless and lf? all ! their '.little earnings t gone. I' do not know of 'a 'single 'instance of a man Having made even his tucker. 'What" little gold-was obtained is not of the value stated,- and 1 4m very sceptical regarding, the statement made that three men obtained there 30 ounces of gold in the space of five or six days. ,,Had. such, been the case, there are plenty' ,in r ,this town ,would ,have.> heard of it. There is, too much evidence rhere, and sorrowful evidence too, that the supposed,,,field t -is worse even, ,than what, _. is technically a ,' duffer,? and t the rush was got up by certain interested .parties, at a ( time of .great commercial depression, from .selfish motives .only. , ,1 ; hope, that the Auckland miners will stick to .their own .country, and endeavour to. develop: the Sure resources that undoubtedly exist there, and not rush on ,to dangers, difficulties, and privations they themselves know nothing,. of, but which others havefound out, at the cost of their money and their lives. — I am; sir, ,yoms truly, James Thornton. , \ Ml enclose a newspaper cuttingappearing in a recent, issue of »one of, pur , local papers relative to thejgoldfiold at, St.\ Aignans. You will notice the last -sentence. I may mentionyt. Aignan'sis onepf-thesamegroup with Sud-Est. ,The .writer, state's :— ' The .natives >on * Normanby, Island are very hostile. Eight men were, murdered the other dayyand he, t did not know how the. prospecting,^ party of five would ,get on amongst them. He said it was better for a man to - earn 10s a .week and his tucker .than to go -there to make a little money in such an ungodly country. , There is not one out of ISO' that , makes their, expemes.' "