The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 195, 16 March 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1868.

The Queensland diggings have received a check sooner than we expected, and the diggers are leaving them as fast as they can, pronouncing them to he the greatest swindle since the Port Curtis rush. This was no more than we predicted, and in almost similar words, and as there are now diggers on the Buller who can speak from actual experience of the place we have no douht the relation of their experience to their mates will do much towards preventing any more misery being ad'led to the misery already at Gympie's Creek. To use the words of

one of them, " Addison's was bad enough but its a paradise compared with Gympie's Creek." The ground is more than ordinary patchy as we anticipated, and whoever was lucky enough to come upon a patch done well, but otherwise it was a case of starvation, and many a miner knew not where to look for " tucker.' According to the latest telegraphic in - telligence from Queensland, which is up to the 6th March, there were about 13,000 people on the ground, and it was anticipated that great distress would result from this over population on these diggings. For, as may be anticipated, there is nothing but mining to support the large population now there, and the nature of the climate almost incapacitates any person from attempting to travel any distance if they have not been used to or accustomed to its character. The Gympie's Creek rush, as all the other rushes to Queensland have proved, has been a mistake. We do not deny but that there is gold as there was at Cauoona, but not in sufficient quantities to support a large population. The greatest mistake on the part of miners is to rush away on the first receipt of any intelligence to a place at a distance, as they may be certain it will be " rushed" by those living near the place long before the miner at a distance can reach it. The Grey River Argus contains a statement made by Mr Rider, a returned digger, which, after enumerating the efforts made by himself and party to find gold, in the course of which they thoroughly prospected the country for upwards of thirty miles round Gympie's Creek, states that nearly the whole of the miners are bewailing their fate in having come to such a place, and heartily wishing they had the means to return to the "West Coast. He then goes on to say:— " That the condition of the miners that have by this time congregated at Gympie Creek must be pitiable, for ho is confident that there is no goldfield in the district, beyond a few patches. As for employment, there is none to be had; there are no public works going on, and farm and plantation labor is done chiefly by South Sea Islanders. Mr Rider tells us that he has no hesitation in saying that the rush to Queensland will prove the greatest • swindle' to use his own term) the miners have experienced since the Port Curtis rush, and he cautions the miners on the West Coast against the folly of leaving. The preceding is not from the lips of a discontented man who did not try the place, but from one of a party, all of whom had ample means, and who could afford to give the ground a fair trial."