The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-20 00:00:00

THE GOLD IN AUSTRALIA.

NEWS FROM OPIIIR.

SYDNEY, JCNII fl

party ertr7 fkjethilol
. ...
spura of thenu of ewer-
Extensive researches are being made in every
direction, the result of which has been to show the
extension of the gold district beyond the Bathurst
diggings. Parties leave daily.
On the ith JunonetauMiaor.,wFfoi.trhOaktha mll
Oakes,
'
Ast
at started t e dir c r
on g fro
ir
.ohbmei
et
hGme orou lug bornld exists In that locality. Mr.
Oakes had been led to believe it does, from the ro-
port of a Californian miner, whom he met with
while ;.in a late visit to the Ophir diggings. On the
9th, another party, consisting of Mr. J. J. Marlyn,
the surveyor, Mr. Lockhart, and Mr. Gwynn°, left
Sydney for the Gallen Ranges, near ftieklands,
with the intention of examining that line of hills
which forms the dividing range of the colony.
The following letter has been received from an ex.
tensive sheep proprietor in the Wellington district:
Bubb°, June 3, 18.11.

Dear Sir,—l have just got horns from the "
and have merely time to write you with a small specimen,
procured by my own working in a tin basin. I have nova
got every necessary fur mining, and have three men at
work. There is plenty of gold, but it is all a lottery, soma
being lucky, but many the contrary. Flour is selling here
at 1001. per ton ; indeed, it cannot ba got. This &scorer,
will ultimately do good to the graziers, fur cattle and sheep
will advance as the demand increases. I could say mare
about the diggings, but time presses. I will most probably
write you again on Saturday.—l remain, Sc.,
Mr. A. Lcnehan. NICHOLAS
It is stated that Mr. Grovenor, of Gunning, has
fitted out a party whose destination is the high
country about the Fish river.
Nothing will more strikingly show the rage for
"prospecting" than the fact that Mr. N. Mendelson,
of the Bathurst Hotel, has offered a premium of 200
guineas for any one who will discover a gold field in
the Bathurst district.
Advises from the well-known town of Yass state,
so extensive has been the migration to the diggings,
that only five adults remain in the whole place.
Three of these go "prospecting" next week.
Letters front Gundagai, on the Nlurrumbiclgee,
state that the river rose suddenly on the pith May.
Such a flood has not been seen by the narrator in
his nine years' residence. The Port Philip mail had
to be conveyed on horseback. It is considered for.
tunate for mining interests that the weather has
been beautiful, and the river banks covered with
abundant food for cattle and sheep. The people en
the .Murrumbidgee are much excited by the gold
news from Bathurst, but they daily hope to have a
little gold field of their own, though they (the far.
mers) arc trying to stave off the digging operations
until after wheat sowing. The storekeepers at Gun.
dagni and the other stations are going mad, and most
of then have raised the prices of all articles of
general consumption, particularly 'tour, sugar,
tea, Sc. . . . . . .

A map of the gold field has already been published
at Sydney by the enterprise of the well-known map.
engraver of that city. It is compiled by Mr. Meadows
Brownrigg, surveyor, and embraces a tract of country
extending widely over the three shires of Bathurst,
Wellington, and. Roxburgh, defining clearly and ac-
curately every particular instructive to the gold
finder. The track of Mr. Hargreaves, the discoverer,
in his expedition of research, is carefully laid down,
and the various spots on which he found gold, which
arc upwards of a dozen in number, are shown. Tho
road between Bathurst and the diggings is marked
with a red line. Mr. Hargreaves has given his
authentication to the undertaking.
It may be of some interest to remark that the
number ofships which left Sydney for California,
from the beginning of this year, is twelve, which
have conveyed 1,08 l passengers. This is besides
the 'mutiny carried last year. This drain on tho
colony will now be stopped, and immigration will
take place. The loss to the colony is the morn
serious, us each of these emigrants had been brought
in at the charge of the Colonial Laud Sales Fund.
The emigration was going on at the rote of 3,500
yearly.
Many of the parties who have left will regret that
they have traversed half the world needlessly, when
there was a good, if not a better chance at. home.
Front the Bathurst Free Press of the 7th June,
we have made the following gleanings
Time LATEST iNTELMIENCF.—Front Mr.WOzer, who ro-
turned from the diggings yesterday aft. rnoon, we learn
that the miners were cheerfully paying their Hi:cute-money
coming out of their own accord to Mr. Hardy fur that pur-
pose. Ile left on Thursday, at 11 o'clock in the morning,
up to which time upwards of 300 licenses hay been issues'.
Mr. Walker has been employed purchasing "I on behalf
of Mr. Atodin,and returned to town, acetaupanitalby an

crawl, n ith 350/. worth of gold. Ji;at nefiiio 'tarting, •
poor shepherd had picked up a lump weighing 1 lb. 7 oz.,
which he sold to a gentleinau ou the spot before weighing it,
at a guess, for W.
Monte Goma A stranger called upon Mr. Dun*.
ford, on Wednesday last, and produced n few pieces it
ye llow metal, which he desired to he te-te.l. Having exa-
mined it, Mr. Duusti.rd pronounced it to be gold. Elated
with this iisformation, the stranger stated that he had dis-
covered a very rich spot in some sequestered place, but
manifested an unwillingness to indicate even the direction.
A month*, labour, he observed, would satisfy him, aft°t
which he intended to make his discovery known to the
public.
l'uosera-mo.—Several of the most successful of the
Ophir gold diggers have formed themselves into a company,
with Use object of exploring the Toren Mountains, where
they express themselves pretty confidently of finding rich
diggings. It is certainly desirable to divert some portion
of the numerous arrivals to fresh localities. Tho Ophir
diggings are already far too crowded to be comfortable. In
some spots the miners stand so close together that their
picks have to be very carefully used to prevent them from
striking each other.
A letter received this morning by a Sydney merchant
states, as a positive fact, that gold has been discovered in
large quantities on Mitchell's Creek, near Wellington
" 1 he throng by the Sydney road to the diggings continue.
unabated, the numbers by that route alone amounted to not
less than 250 to 300 daily, most of them accompanied with
carts and teams containing their luggage. On Wednesday
311 men passed through Kelso to Bathurst, and about 100
conveyances of one description or another. A gentleman
informed us that on coining towards Bathurst the other
morning he encountered lid teams and upwart's of 200 men
camped at Mary's-lane, en route for Ophir : and a friend
states that ho met a small troop of Sydney exquisite' at
King's Rains, looking bright in spurs, kid gloves, aud.opers
ties, and smelling sweet in hair-oil and Eau do Cologne.
Mr. Joseph Nett, who has just returned from the metros
polio, saw 160 drays and 1,117 men between Sydney and tho
foot of Mount Victoria. Drs. Mutter and Gwynn, from
l'aramatta, he says, are on the road for the diggings with a
locomotive hospital, consisting of a number of tents and
twenty-five stretchers, and (lie added with a broad grin)
50 coffins filled with flour. Mr. West pledges himself
to the truth of all the previous particulars, but generously
leaves the last piece of intelligence to ho swallowed or not,
as our readers choose. It is to bo hoped, for their own
sakes, that l)rs. Kotler and Owynn's outfit includes digging
implements, and that these gentlemen can adapt themselves
to circumstances, and, if need be, turn miners, as up to out
last advice., not a single case of sickness more serious than a
cough or a cold had occurred. Tha tents and stretchers may
prose a good spec, but for the good of the inhabitants of
Ophir, we wish that Mr. West's imaginary coffins may re-
main deposited in that portion of les cranium known as
the organ of ideality, and as for lancets, gallipots, purga-
tives, and plasters, that they may be things of the distant
future. On Thursday Captain Bettye arrived in town with
nine mounted troopers. Mr. Maher'a house in l'ipers
street has been rented as barracks for their accom-
modation. The miners still continue to pay their licenii
fees peaceably. Every description of labour is plentiful. A
sheephulder of undoubted veracity informed me yesterday
that he had hired shepherds at the mines, at the usual rate d
wages, but if disposed he could have got them for 111. per
annum. Several employers of labour in town say that they
arc daily importuned for situations by unsuccessful miners.
One thing appears certain, that unless auriferous angora-
, ries be made ui other places, the labour market of this dis-
trict will be supplied at the expense of our neighbours.
We have heard from good authority of 40 to 50 Sydney
people returning homewards during the lust few days die
[ appointed ; but from the wretched equipment and personal
L unfitness for gold digging of large number*, this was to be
expected. Amongst other arrival' we notice that of two
mendicants in the shape of a blind boy and a lame one, the
proprietor of a hurdy-gurdy, and the owner of a l'unch-
I and-Judy establishment—all strange sights in Bathurst.
' Goma—Since our last there has not been much gold
' purchased iii town. A few have returned from Uphir very
' succe,ful ; some the reverse; and more who lase,: dons
' tolerably well. A tailor well known in town of the name
' of Charts* Wright, who left about a fortnight B#o but very
1
'indifferently equipped, and worked along with another
' man, brought the produce of their joint labours to market,
'I a day or two ago, which when sold, realised 211. Isis. each.
: ! Three men from Carcoar were very fortunate on Monday
last, one of them named Gorringe, a honest blacksmith,
' turning up three lumps weighing upwards of a pound each.
' A man named Worthy, late hostler to Mr. Swaddle, re-
turned a day or two ago, who had been digging in aompusy
' with three others for three weeks. The produce of their
' labour was 1 ox. 15 dwts. 12 grs., for a hich tray obtained
'i 51. 6s. 6.1. A nail-maker named Giles has returned, after a
' ! fortnight's severe digging, in company with others; he
erne .I a little over his rat:ons. Instances of berth kinds
' , could lie multiplied to any lengtii, establishins too ‘4lonous
unc,rtainty of a gild digger'. prospects.
It is to be regretted that, notwithatauding the
' gold mania, which takes off so many bad characters
tto the diggiugr, hush-ranging is rung on. width'