370 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION C. 
yielded during the first five years of its existence nearly 1,000,000 oz. 
of gold of very rich quality. This yield has not, however, been main- 
tained. The Palmer has suffered the fate of all alluvial fields, without 
having reaped the advantage of a corresponding development of reef 
mining, although rich reefs have been discovered in the vicinity, for 
the climate is not such as to induce settlement unless with the 
prospect of speedy wealth and comfortable retirement ; nor is the 
quality of the land such as to conduce to close agricultural settle- 
ment. It lias, however, contributed in a marked degree to the 
pastoral settlement of the country, which has again reacted on the 
prospecting for minerals, from the facilities thereby afforded by the 
various homesteads, and their necessary means of communication with 
the coast towns. 
The advantages of such a discovery as the Palmer Gold Field are 
not, however, so devoid of alloy as the gold obtained there, for the 
nomenclature of the neighbourhood smacks strongly of experiences 
other than those originating in the abundance of the mineral wealth 
with which the more fortunate were rewarded. Among such names 
are Battle Camp, Murdering Hut, Hell’s Gates, Cannibal Creek, and 
Poverty Point ; all which originated in and perpetuate the memory of 
some encounter, some treachery, some reprisal, some hope abandoned, 
expectation vanished, or unanticipated grave tenanted. 
But such are some of the risks encountered, the experiences 
endured, or the contests sustained, and conquests achieved in the 
gratification of that thirst for gold, which impels the nomadic digger 
to rush to the uttermost parts of the earth in quest of the precious 
metal. 
During the five years now under review the total mineral produc- 
tion of the colony was more than three times that of the preceding 
five years, and more than eighteen times that of the first similar term 
of the existence of the colony. 
The item “ Gold” had given a value of £3,840,053; copper had more 
than doubled in its production, and coal increased but slightly, the 
former giving a value of £800,943, and the latter £79,590 ; whilst 
tin had been obtained in about half the period to the value of 
£1,074,550, and other minerals £27,483, making a total for the five 
years of £5,822,619 — an enormous accession of wealth for a population 
numbering from 100,000 to 150,000 during the period included — an 
accession which lifted the colony from the depression and despondency 
into which it had fallen in 1866, and placed it in a substantial and 
prosperous position, with the prospect of many years of uninterrupted 
success in the industry which had done so much to galvanise its 
dormant existence into vigorous life and activity. 
The production of gold during the next five years appears to have 
almost monopolised the attention of the mining population of the 
colony, for during the period 1875 to 1879 it contributed four-fifths 
of the total value of the production of the mining industry, although 
during the latter years of the period a considerable falling off w r as 
noticed, as was to be expected, from the alluvial yield at the Palmer; 
the only new r field of importance which had been discovered during 
this interval being the Hodgkinson, which sprang into existence in 
1876, and, although passably rich at first, w r as far from compensating 
