§ MR. SALT (Stafford)asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies, If he can afford any authentic information respecting the character and probable extent of the recent discoveries of gold in Australia?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. E. STANHOPE) (Lincolnshire, Horncastle)My hon. Friend is referring, no doubt, to the gold field discovered in Western Australia. The Governor has proclaimed the district between 126 degrees and 129 degrees east and 16 degrees and 19.30 degrees south as a gold district, and an Act has been passed for its management similar to the Queensland Act. According to our latest information (May 21), the Kimberley gold field, as it is called, continues to make progress. More than 1,000 ounces of gold have come down to Derby or Cambridge Gulf. The number of miners at present on the field is 600 or 700. The rapidity of the rush is checked by the fact that the gold field must be approached by a difficult tropical land journey of over 300 miles, and that the miners must be provided with horses and stores, and must, therefore, be men of some capital.