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i News from Kimberley.
MURDER BY BLACKS.
Following is the fuller telegraphic account of
the Kimberley murders, to which allusion was
made in our last issue :
M'Pheo's Creek, Sept. 22.
The worst possibfc accounts of failure,_ disap-
pointment, and hardships continue to come in from
all sidos. Men are on the move daily from one
camp to another, and all have the same cry
"Nothing doing anywhere." I imagined that long
era this the rush would have been stopped, but by
the number of fresh arrivals who are daily coming
in, hundreds must still be en route.
Yesterday I was an eye-witness of a most pitiablo
spectacle. Whilst conversing with six new arrivals
from New Zealand, two of them (big, strong,
bronzed, bearded men), positively shed tears whilst
recounting their troubles and disappointments at
having come over here. They said they had been
small farmers in Maoriland, but when the news of
the great finds of gold in this territory continued
to appear in the daily papers they sold out every-
thing they possessed and came over with all
possible speed. Scores of others have done the
same thing, and hundreds who have arrived from
the different colonies are positively ruined, as they
expended their last pounds in providing outfits,
and are now working 10 and 12 hours daily without
averaging a pennyweight of gold per day. Nearly
all would return, but they have not the means to
get back, and are working on, hoping that they
may eventually strike a rich patch.
I regret to state, that another murderous outrage
has been perpetrated by the blacks. Positive details
have not reached me, but, after interviewing several
miners who arrived to-day from the locality, I
gleaned the following information. A few nights
aero, while five men were asleep in their tent (which
was pitched near the Panton River, some 60 miles
north of M'Pheo's Creek) the blacks threw a shower
of spears at them. One of them was speared in the side,
and another in the neck. The latter died almost im-
mediately, and without a groan, but the injuries of
the other man are not of a serious character. The
blankets protected the remainder of the party, and
they escaped without a scratch. By the time the
three who were not injured became awake there was
not the slightest sign of a black in the neighbour-
hood.
I am afraid that outrages of this description will
be more numerous ere long. The blacks are now,
as it were between two fires. First, the water is
fast drying up in the back country, and the whites
are in possession of the only good waterholes that
are now known. Secondly, the tribes of this side
aro afraid to cross what is known as the border-land,
which divides the different tribes, as by so doing a
war among themselves would be inevitable. There-
fore, they have only one or two alternatives : to
fight their dusky neighbours, or murder the whites,
with the view of driving them from their hunting
grounds and water. As they will never succeed in
this, the chances are that the different tribes will
ultimately amalgamate with a view of making a
great raid upon those at present in possession of
mis oarrcn, rocuy, ana spimiex country.
I had an interview to-day with Mr. George Craig,
who has come over here to report upon country for
the Kimberley Squatting and Investment Company.
He has been down to Derby, and reports the country
splendid for pastoral purposes, whilst the road is
everything that teamsters or travellers could
desire-perfectly level for about 300 miles, with
abundance of grass and water at convenient stages.
Eegarding the road from Cambridge Gulf, new
arrivals inform me that it is not nearly so rough
now as it was a couple of months back, and that
drays can, for a new country, be brought through
with comparative ease. It is 100 miles shorter than
via Derby, and if the diggings ever extend towards
the Ord and Panton it will not be 200 miles away.
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