and wandered restlessly in search of good ground. They were strewn over the country bounded on the north-east by the Elvire River, from the Gorge to the junction with the Black Elvire, and on the south-west by McPhee's Gully. There were no settled camps or workings; most of the men were located at Hall's Creek, the Twelve-Mile Camp, Elvire River, and Hall's and McPhee's Gullies. Mr. Price declared that there was no alluvium, no lead; the prospectors merely stripped the few inches of surface in the ravines, or "fossicked" in the bars of the creeks. Dry blowing was the general method followed for getting the gold from the dirt; the average obtained was a pennyweight or so, daily; perhaps a few ounces would be found in an isolated patch, with nothing leading from or to it. The prospects were not encouraging; most of the men could not find sufficient metal to pay for their provisions, and they had either to leave the country or starve. No improvement took place, as was anticipated, when the rains set in, and the field was condemned as a failure. Mr. Price observed that the sacrifice of valuable property was lamentable; parties who had only just reached the fields splendidly equipped sold their waggons, carts, and harness for a mere trifle; many vehicles were abandoned and eventually destroyed, and the timber was used for "cradles". Fine draught and pack-horses sold for less than a quarter of their value; hundreds of men were so discouraged that they never visited the supposed payable ground; but, on arriving at the end of the cart track, remained perhaps a day or two, sold what they could, and left the country in disgust. Many of these men had come great distances, and their equipment cost as high as from £200 to £500; the average cost per head, Mr. Price thought, was £100, and exceptionally few took that amount away.
Although these reports were discouraging, it would seem that more gold was obtained in 1886 than Mr. Price reckoned, but still not nearly so much as fulsome hope anticipated. No estimate could be formed, as a considerable quantity of the metal was unaccounted for, owing to the desire of the diggers to escape from paying the export duty of 2s. 6d. imposed by the Government. This duty, while calculated to indemnify the Government the expense incurred in supplying police and other protection and in public works, was in itself indiscreet, and was repealed on 22nd July, 1887, when the total amount received did not exceed £30. Large numbers of men surreptitiously took their gold with them to the other colonies, and others sold to the storekeepers, or exchanged for stores. The Blue Book gives the export of gold in 1886 as 302 ozs., valued at £1,147 12s.
By February, 1887, after the first flight, only about 600 men remained on the field, most of whom were congregated at Twelve-Mile Camp and Brockman's River. Little change in numbers took place therefrom for some months. On the Brockman the men were at a great disadvantage for want of water, which they had to carry seven miles for domestic purposes. The gold at this place was extracted by the dry blowing process. While still considering the field a disappointment, Mr. Price decided in 1887 that numbers of men were obtaining good returns, but what these were he could not discover. At Brockman's, for instance, two or three hundred men walked seven miles daily for water, besides performing their day's work. After the beginning of the rainy season, in December, 1886, several ravines were opened out, and rich patches were come upon. As usual, a rumour that a rich gully was being worked attracted a rush from every part of the gold-bearing district, no matter how great the distance. In a few days the gully would be rooted from end to end; the discovery of a nugget a few ounces in weight, or of a quantity of heavy gold, would induce men on the point of leaving to remain a little longer, in hopes that they, perhaps, would be the next lucky ones. The heaviest gold obtained at this time was from the Panton tributaries, the coarsest from the Brockman River, and the finest at Mount Dockrell, in the south-west.
While the alluvial was not all that was expected, the prospects and indications of the great quartz-reef outcrops served to deter numbers of men from leaving. Excellent quartz was found in places, and encouraged the prospectors to search for more. The Jackson reef, at Hall's Creek, on the Elvire, was the first to be opened up—in September, 1886. Gold-bearing stone was then found on the Lady Broome, Lady Margaret, and Brockman reefs, and in places sufficient gold was obtained on the surface by the primitive process of dollying to pay expenses. But in depth the stone was not so rich. The Jackson line was traced and pegged out to a considerable distance, and showed gold-bearing stone in every claim. Two well-defined reefs were exploited north of the Panton; a leader of great richness was discovered at Mount Dockrell, and another at Spear Gully, near McPhee's Gully; at Two-Mile Gully, east of McPhee's, two men took 130 ounces from a leader in a very short time. Mr. Carr-Boyd conveyed to Melbourne 11 cwt. of stone from the Jackson mine, which, when crushed, is said to have yielded 43 ounces to the ton. By June, 1887, thirty-four quartz claims had been registered; at Hall's Creek, twenty-four claims; Brockman's, four; Mount Dockrell, five; and Panton, five; worked by 147 men. Mr. E.T. Hardman advised an amendment of the Goldfields Act, particularly in the clause relating to the prohibition of leasing for two years. The objects of the clause were unnecessary, and detrimental to mining interests. The view of Mr. Price was asked, and he opposed this suggestion. The objection to leasing at the outset, he held, was to prevent large areas of untried ground, which might maintain numbers of individual miners, being taken up by speculators, who had no intention of working them, and whose aim was to float bogus companies. He quoted the Northern Territory of South Australia as an example of such companies; the labour conditions were easily evaded. "There, with equally stringent regulations, hundreds of acres are locked up, and have been for years; not a man at work, and costly machinery utterly destroyed through neglect." The ground, he continued, was granted on lease on the first discovery of the field; bogus companies were formed, and afterwards collapsed; the promoters pocketed the money; the shareholders were ruined; and the land was locked up for years. An Amending Goldfields Act, enabling leases to be taken out immediately, was passed in 1888.
The health of the men at Kimberley was not good. Fever and ague, dysentery and scurvy, were prevalent in 1886-7. The cost of food supplies was enormous, owing to the exorbitant freightage charges—£150 per 2,000 lbs. Flour sold at 1s. to 1s. 3d.; tea, 4s.; sugar, 1s. 6d; salt, 1s. 6d.; and rice, 1s. 3d. per lb. These prices were afterwards reduced. In 1887 a few good specimens of alluvial gold were obtained. One party conveyed from 1,500 to 2,000 ounces to Derby at one time; casual discoveries of nuggets were made. Companies were formed to work the quartz reefs, and by November machinery reached Hall's Creek to work the Nicholas Mine, on the Margaret line of reef. A mine named the Lady Carrington was purchased by a London syndicate, on condition that the first crushing yielded two ounces to the ton.
