WEST CANTERBURY GOLDFIELDS.

Tlo following accounts from OkaOta, £aoi eri and the Grey will be interesting: — Our latest news from Okanta is dated last Saturday. It is to the effect Suit at Gillespie's beach about 600 miners are at work. A few parties are «orW on the beach, but the majority Ire settled down a short distance mind, the furthest claim being about Edf-a-mile from the beach. The claims are mostly yielding onlvwages, but a few are paving well. These diggmgs ST somewhat like the Tucker flat, near Kanjeri and in the event of a new place, like Tucker flat, Gillespie's would be abandoned. 1 here are eleven stores, two bakeries, and two butcheries on the beach. Ihe atorekeepere and others in business report that the diggers spend very little money, and the quantity of liquor consumed in proportion to the population is very little indeed. At Hunt's beach tad Cook's Biver are said to be about 300 people, but I do not think that is During the past few weeks the population on the Kanieri has considerably increased. It is estimated that the number of miners at present on Commissioner's Fiat, Tucker Flat, Woodstock, and vicinity, is about 2500. On Commiaaioner's Flat mining operations are being carried on extensively. No less than five steam engines are full at work there, thus giving employment to a Jarwe body of miners, who otherwise could not work their claims. On the terraces behind the township very little has been done of late, in consequence of the want of water on the races, which hitherto have|carried as much as six to eight heads of water, but now scarcely bringing in one head. These races bring the water a distance of nine miles. On Tucker Fat about two hundred men are at work, all making good wages. A great many, however, have gone to tbeHau-hau diggings, concerning which gloomy accounts continue to be received here. At Arthurstown only a few miners are working, and very little business of any kind is being carried on there at present. Woodstock has about one hundred, including miners and sawyers, who are unusually idle at present. Business continues brisk; in fact, better than it has ever been known to be on the Kanieri. The storekeepers are enlarging their premises, and all seem satisfied with the present, and their prospects in the future.

Befcrring to the latest rush to the northwards of the Grey, the " Argus " of the 15th says:—" A digger who returned from the North, where the Woodpecker landed her passengers last week, informs us that the men who went there are all seemingly satisfied with the prospects before them. As far as yet known, no gronnd has been tested that can be accounted rich, but in almost all places there is some gold more or less payable to be had, giving wages that vary from £3 to £7 weekly. The j upper part, from the dense undergrowth, is wet and spongy, but as soon J as a few feet are stripped off that dif-' ficulty disappears. "Water is a scarce commodity, and should a large number of men set in, it will be found a serious want to be met. Back from the first ' ledge '—for these diggings consist of a series of terraces, or like enlarged prairie rollers —the country is somewhat more open, and to all appearance S'ves evidence of an auriferous nature, ur informant thinks that for some time to come there will be no attempt at anything like deep sinking, as the parties there will be content to work upon a certainty until a rise has been made. The majority, however, are at work in the rirer, and in its results there is a strong uniformity with those realised oa the "Pakheis." The population is supposed to be about 300, but as they' were scattered, a true approximate could not be arrived at, and each day was adding to the numbers already there. We are promised a letter from the same party as soon as he is fairly settled in his claim, and we shall be happy to lay before our readers any information it may contain.