Rockhampton Bulletin and Central Queensland Advertiser (Qld. : 1861 - 1871), Saturday 1 June 1867, page 3


To THE Borros OF TOE BOLLET!».

SIR,-The editor of the Northern Argut in reply to a letter of mine, which appeared in Saturday's BULLETIN, commenting on his leader of the 18th instant, has tried by bad arguments, and still worse language, to snub me. After letting off his surplus steam in some not very complimentary remarks, be goes on to say that ho bas shown in very plain language Twhat beneGls would accrue to the country

generally by the conveyance of water to the Morinish ; I deny that lie bas. Ridgelands has never been short of water, and no p ly able ground on tit« Morinish has been deserted through insufficiency of it. The gullies that have been discovered at Ridgelands and

Morinish are nearly worked out, and J think { it. would be advisable to Cnd the gold before bringing water. Dozens of gullies have been prospected about Itidgclunds and Morinish, wtv-ch would not run a speck to the dish, and I defy the editor to BIIOW me anv ground either at Ridgelands or Morinish whieh would reim-burse one for the outlay requin d to bring wnter to those places. No one would like better «han myself to see wat or here if it would do any gooa, but I consider if the Government were induced to conduct a race to the Morinish and it proved a failure, it might deter them from a similar undertaking at some future time when it might be desirable. As for the editor's assertion that there is plenty of gold discovered, it is si tn pl j bosh. Th» editor (hen quotes-(by the way he is very fond of introducing quota-tions)- .* The very head and front of my offend-ing hath thii extent, no more," if he ha 1 added*' rude am I in speech " it would have been very apropos. The editor t-t ll persists in saying that duns should be furnished to the Crocodile ; if he had proposed that tail races should be cut ¿t would bare been more to the purpose, although it is almost too late for that now, aB th*re is but little payable ground left. The

editor sa vs that ho knows more about

diggings thin the digger. Wi* Ivive only his word fur it, and I don't suppose that has much weight with any one who know* him. He states that my assertion as to nine-tenths of the poputzûon remaining on tho Sforinish, only in tba

ti'>jii* of anmering fresh being diicove i, f.- s,*

j "fulae us dicers'oath*," arida J it m ire tmlJiv

da&h. I wo'i'i expose the man by rope ding it, but the truth of my insertion lins been proved by the fact thuf (he majority of the di^er* have loft, within the last K<w days, for two rushes, one ßClean the other twenty miles datant. As to his would-be-cutting remark about furnishing ma with facts, noi brains, I wuuJd bf fouh>h, in leed, to expect hitit to furnish me with that of wbi.-h he ia not himself possessed, lie pu**»*» over my statement, that if water we«-« lo be brought,

not one hundred men would be benefiitcd, as too , absurd, too ridiculous to answer ; it's a very j convenient way to roo h pooh u tiling when you can't disprove it. I unmask my ignorance, according to the editor, hy supposing the re-sources of the Morinish hare long since been developed. Why doesn't ibo go-id inan quote I correctly? What I said WJS that the " wonder-

ful " resources of the Morinish that the editor speaks of, have long since been developed, with the exception of the reefs. Ho thus continues : so then a population of some two thousand, half loafer*, h ilf diggers, have fnify developed a gold-field which is known to spread over forty I square miles of country, and thi*, we are gravely

aaaurrtiL ia th« case. * Stick tn tho truth Mr

Editor, 1 didn't eily timi auriferous resources of forty square miles of Country was fully developed, as may be seen by reference to my quotation. There may be some hundreds of miles of auriferous country, (.at the payable patches may bc pretty forapirf; and whit good would the disc .re re rs of gold-say twenty miles from Morin i>h-derice from witter blaine brought to the latter plan-? Tho editor eflrtctunl/y succeeds in unmasking his own ignorance by s ming there are two thousand on the Morinish; lhere is not one thousand on Morinish, Ridgelands, and the surrounding rushes combined. As i»r the I on fers, the editor's estimate of them would apportion om» to every digger. People have to wnr(i to > hird for th-ir money here to support louiers. 1 am sure store-

keepers won't d » so.

Ile theu says that Morinish lia-» been moat of the time, sitien its diseovery, unworkable, through insufficiency of wuler. l int is IH false ns thc rest of his statements ; and every digger knows it He then asks who's the .Solomon nowdecidedly not the edi or.

He then goes on to say th«* the place has hardly been scratched ns "vet. If the fellow knew anything about wlut ho is writing, he WÍÍUÍJ be a»-tre that i))t» ie ids almost in vari ibly ran out in Queensland when they get into deep ground. I suppose he funnies dint the deeper one goes the inure gold ho gets: erny if tour feet sinking will turn out half un ounce to tho ' load, eight feet will nm au ounce to the load, Iand so on. I consider the impudence and

mend icify of the editor's remarks as only

eooalled hr hin ¡>ni>i*ritiiv.

Ridgelands GoM-fiVtds.'Jfiiy 29, IW7.