LATEST FROM HOKITIKA.

Press, Volume VII, Issue 794, 16 May 1865, Page 2

LATEST FROM HOKITIKA.

The West Coast Times, of the lOfch inst., gives the following account of the revenue derived from the West Coast goldfields :•—

The following is a rough approximation of the revenue derived from the Hokitika goldfield, from the 22nd March to the Bth May, inclusive:—

Gold export duty collected at Hokitika is something over -£3000; collected at Nelson, till 30th April, about £1300; giving;* total of £4300 • representing about 3*4,000 ounces of gold raised here in just seven weeks!

The import duties paid here amount to some £4500, of which £4000 has been reV mitted to the Sub-Treasurer of the General Government at Lyttelton- of this eighths will go into the Provincial chest. . ":

Besides this the duty-paid goods arriving from other ports, for seven weeks, have pro* * bably been worth a duty rateable at £20JXJQi ' a year. , tf The revenue arising from licenses, &c, ire , have not yet been able to ascertain. Three thousand, pounds was remitted on Monday last by W; H. Eevell, Esq., who • has been provisionally entrusted with the authority of Sub-Collector of Customs, assisted by Mr. Lemming, until arrangements of a more permanent character could . be effected, and some officer of experience in the technicalities and routine of Customs department should be sent round here from one of the older ports. Mr. : t>. —n ,**. >*r. ■*.*a™. n + nn A w,*-] * n th P fwnrße of!** j.'ilSCjT "ia"n xacwu uuiw .»—~ "fill " is Licensing Officer under the Arms Aet,|£ yhich the provisions are very stringent,fe; are enforced by penalties of the severest, ;~ racter. . ; ~~ :^>J[ It is very satisfactory to find have been taken by the General Government?jl" to organise their revenue and postal lishments on a footing, of permanency;. sides the permanent Sub-Collectcf * : '<"fe* Customs, the City of Dunedin brought last week M. Keogb, Esq., just appointed '.feji be Chief Postmaster for the Hokitika B«r trict of Canterbury. The Customs for tlie Province also tho same ship, with authority Commissioner of Customs, Major son, to arrange at once for the general or isation and permanent increase of the ,Ufiß*-gg| toms staff. A temporary office has been opened in part of Palmer and Co.'s iron store, Wharf ***j**p%£ where it is to be presumed importers always certain to find some one to Customs business;, and no longer be olfflgp|||g to hunt the town over for the has hitherto so patiently and had to run. from store to store all town, transacting his business on handy packing case. The new will be erectea in the course of a w^ ten days, on the General Beserve, above .the new Post-office. Slnpping i import business ought then td oecom^l?* facilitated to all parties, and flow on IR ?sj?Sp ease and smoothness. approximating of more settled ports. It is to be hoped ™@Sm bhe Customs and Postal staff will »M strengthened at once, for it is inconceif with the present amount <£ t d£HJSfi|k *nd papulation that any one officer bhe wants of the public with .any lespatch whatever. The City of nail brought no leas than 2500 fcttea|

'-~i>£oe .leern from the -Pre** that the teler-' fine is completed from Invereargiil to Qflflitchorch. Isolated as we are here, and ' jjgDg more a dependent upon Kelson, as the rttfcefc P ort > tnan Ghristchurch, would it £& fee a wise action on the part of the njgjeebwj (xovernment to cause a line to , Jtftwried to the West Coast ? The idea of £~ftgd—-pet scheme as it may long have been i£»iuwr given up as untenable; and, indeed, " it otherwise, the road would be comneatiraly useless, for land carriage cannot Snpete with that by water, but a telegraph, lettttes being a real boon to us, would be of to Christchurch. The git would be nothing compared with the '- ftioe, end it would soon repay the first outW besides being subsequently a source of fflnaderable revenue. In Victoria the telejmnh is universal, and we may well take a fault from our enterprising fellow-country-oea on the other side. J. MOSTH'B SHIPMENT OF GOLD FHOM HOKrrixiL. [From the Colonist, May 12.] Since our last summary, of April 11, a very laxge quantity of gold dust from the Hokitika diggings haa been received at Nelson, as the annexed figures show:— Ounces. By the Omeo on 24th April 10,000 M MaidoftheYarra 2,000 Gland Hamilton. ... ... 3,050 „ Wallaby 3,000 17,050 Iα addition to this amount there was in ~ tbe hands of the bankers, when the ,{ "Wallaby left on Saturday, a further " foentityof ... 3,000 " 20,050 ;Vr 3iis does not include the gold which fetam diggers held in their possession, many *if Vhom took considerable quantities with "diem to Otago and other places. The value of this exported, adding the export duty of , : 2e6d, is £3 17s 6d per ounce, so that the gdd shipped from Hokitika since 22nd of ' April, and the quantity lying for shipment cm Saturday hist, represents the large amount ufeeventy-seven thousand six hundred and ninety • three pounds, fifteen shillings sterling.

/ Such returns require little to be said about Jj&em- They are the best evidences of the "value of the West Coast goldfields, worth a thousand flaming newspaper reports, which, ~ "W the way, have been singularly modest in wek accounts of these diggings. The new diggings have grown on the strength of. their own merits, and on that alone ; and inch "sterling" testimonials must speak with - eSfect of the future in store for the " Land of .^West."

v.; ffhe following is from the monthly sumjaary of the Colonist, published on the 12th -^pgtant:— Jplbe s.s. "Wallaby, from Hokitika and the rivers, arrived here yesterday (Wedafternoon. She brings 3000 ounces >J|pgDld for the Bank of New South "Wales, |iad -£3000 in sovereigns ; the last we pregnane representing the coin which diggers li*3id others arriving had in their possession MU landing, and which, by the natural course '-*kf trade, had found then* way to the banks, ? whue bank notes took their place as the cir- : cokting medium. -^;" "She Wallaby left the same day as the City having to call at the Grey, and, therefore, she does not bring any later intel- . hgen.ce than we had by the latter vessel "We lam that while a large business is doing at \ the Hokitika, and the main street and wharf, w&ekis now erected and thronged with •hipping, present as busy an aspect as do j . Stafford street and Princes street in Dunedin, j yet at present everything is greatly over-1 stocked. It will be some time before stocks can be reduced, especially as speculators in Melbourne, as well as Dunedin and other New Zealand ports, are pressing goods into fl»market, which is daily being added to by both steam and sailing vessels, by which a •apply, greater than even- the naturally large demand, is continually being poured -_. Beyond the intelligence last reported, ?|Jch, with all the important news of the tooth, will be found copiously narrated in -m* various letters of our correspondents, X-?*? o&fc-*" pages of to-day's paper, -jJaS 9 »little to add regarding the diggings. W»deß the 3000 ounces of gold brought by «c Wallaby, which, with 3050 taken direct J|fiWney by the Claud Hamilton on Monflajlast, makes 6050 within a week—there «fo about 3000 ounces more in the hands of *» bankers, which will be sent next trip. she yield of gold brought into the townJap is calculated at about 1000 ounces per «*JFi and latest estimates of the entire popu•wwo set it down at 10,000 to 12,000 in «. There is in the township a popuJta* of from 3000 to 4000 people. "t-*: "k °* co lo * B6 * moving popuJgon, as in addition to the traders, iwe large number of loafers, and men who ttjoy themselves, there is always a stream «f men coming in from different quarters ' "SSj*^ 6lß B 0 * orA > maa J taking a week's ■Jjway. Deducting the population of the g*°-*"JP this would give, say 8000 working ?88«V«fcaIl it 9000, for the sake of avoidexaggeration m our estimates. We have jjwtt 6000 ounces of gold per week falling to which gives the average wages « of an ounce per man per week, »*« 9s in sterling money. This, according j?™ V**t experience, is a high average, and *[«» figures reported to us are correct, it ■tows the gooddiaraetei- of the Hokitika pWfiekt

" Jo. an extra published on Friday afternoon' we Oohnitt says :-— steamer Bruce arrived last night from . r™«a- She brings only about half-a- ***** p-wsengers, wno m was Captain gfl»on, Port and representative of r^ tiM lverbury Government on the Hokitika ■MTWest Coast districts. •lhe Bruce brings 2700 ounces gold; and „ -ggortß the satisfactory intelligence that few : <hggers eeem inclined to return.