WARNING FROM AN AUCKLANDER.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 381, 3 July 1889, Page 6

WARNING FROM AN AUCKLANDER.

Mr James Thornton, formerly of Aucklandj who is now Town Clerk ot the' Municipality of Normanton, Queensland, writes : " I have just received a copy of your issue of fchc4fch May, in which I see a 'local'stating that Messrs JPurchas and Co. (a new firm since I left Auckland 15 months ago) are arranging to lay on a vessel for the SudEst Gold field. I sincerely trust th6y have not succeeded in their enterprise, for it means not only certain loss, disappointment, hardship, and suffering, but probable destruction. T hen this rush first became known here and in Cook town a few months back a great exodus took place, with the result that the few men that did vot leave their bones there ' returned with shattered health, penniless and •starving, all their little earnings 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 I am 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 this town would have hcaid of it. There is too much evidence here, and sorrowful evidence too, that the supposed field is worse even than what is technically termed" a ' duffer,' and the rush was gob up by certain interested parties, at a time ot great commercial depression, from selfish motives only. I 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 have found out, at the cost of their money and their lives. — I am, sir, youis. truly, James Thobnton. "I enclose a newspaper cuttingappearing in a recent issue of one Of our local papers relative to the goldfiold, at St. Aignans. You will notice the last sentence. , I may* mention St. Aignan'sis one of thesamegroup with Sud-Est. The writer states: — 'The natives on Normanby Island are .very hostile. Eight men were * murdered the other day, and he did nob 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 bo go there to make a little money in such an ungodly country. There, is not one out of 150 thai mahes their exptynseiS " * '