WESTLAND.

Press, Volume XI, Issue 1435, 14 June 1867, Page 3

WESTLAND.

"We have received our files from the West Coast to the 11th inst. DIGGING NEWS. Sunday Cbeek.—The " Times," of the Bth, says:—" Very fair reports from the Sunday Creek rush reached town last night, inasmuch as three new shafts have been bottomed, and with good results, the yield in each case being from ldwt to to the dish. There are about ten claims on gold, and against number may be set down nearly a dozen duffers that were sunk round the payable claims. Opinions are divided concerning the character of the workings, as not a few miners believe that a patch only has been struck, although the majority hold a contrary opinion, and maintain that a bona fide lead is ifl hand, and will yet be traced to the Teramakau. Shepherding is carried on to an almost unlimited extent, at the same time many men are sinking and many scattered through the bush prospecting the many likely terraces and gullies that abound in the locality. The new township is rapidly progressing, and for once the Government have taken prompt action, as the formation of the track has absolutely been commenced. lS T early fifty packhorses arrived at the to wnshi p yesterday, all pretty well used up ; and begrimed witbt mud. to a ecrea-ter or less degree." Tg~ a Xhe same ;j>3.p«x-., of tlie 11th. says : —" Mr Warden Schaw I J reports irom vne Ji.ameri tor the last fortnight as follows: —' Quite a stampede has taken place from Woodstock since my last report. I visited, the workings on Wednesday, and found that some miners had returned from the Waimea district on Friday night, and informed their mates that a payable terrace had been discovered at the above-named place. That was sufficient to cause a general rush. However, many of the claims have eince been taken up by fresh men, and the place now appears more settled. Several parties have made their way up the Hokitika and Kanieri rivers during the laet week, and seem in daily expectation of something new being found in those localities. The track from the long ford to the Kanieri lake through the saddle will be finished in a few days ; when completed I shall visit the lake, and report on the country through which the line passes. , Tbe populais estimated at 3000: 2500 miners and 500 otherwise engaged. During the fortnight ten cases were heard in the Court, and one in the field." The Waimea. — Some splendid ground is in work at the foot of the Waimea track on the range of low terraces bordering the Auckland swamp on its inland side. Gold was struck on the same line, nearly or quite a mile further north, about eighteen months ago, and was traced through six claims, which paid very well. It was then lost, but has since been traced in straggling patches along the terrace southwards to where the claim we allude to is in work. It is held by Griffiths and party, who have steadily worked it during the past three months, and better ground than it has proved no digger need desire to strike a pick into. Several of the paddocks which were stripped yielded from fifty ounces to 150 ounces of gold, and no earlier then last week another wae bottomed,

aud yielded the magnificent return of twelve ounces of gold to the barrowload of wa*hdirt. This becoming known, caused a heavy rush, and the ground was marked out to within a few yards of the Arahura river. The lead —for lead it undoubtedly is—is exceedingly patchy, aud thereforo not likely to be held in very high estimation by miners, the chances being quite ten to one against a golden hole. TKACK CUTTING. Track cutting ia progressing very favorably in Westland, as is shown by the several reports lately sent in from the out districts to Mr Eraser, tho Chief Surveyor. Mr Muller, tiie Okarita surveyor, states that the formation of tracks in that district has been commenced by llaeket's party, who are cutting into the country from a point one mile and a-quarter south of the "Waiho river. A. Government party, under Mr Muller, are also cutting from the Five-mile beach to the Waiho gorge, and have already completed twelve miles of the distance. A great many prospectors closely follow the trackmen, and reports are I current that several patches of payable ground have been hit upon near localities from which good prospects were obtained last year. Then, however, it was impossible to work the ground with any profit, the transportation of provisions being attended by a ruinous waste of time, and necessarily of money, but by the aid of tracks these disadvantages will be overcome and the desired results produced. No reports from the Haast district have reached town since the publication of our last article upon tracks, but we hear that Mr Saunders, who is cutting between the Wanganui and Mokonui rivers, has nearly finished a track round the back of Bold Head that will prove an immense convenience to travellers who have hitherto been compelled to skirt that headland on its seaward side by a way at all times difficult,and when tide is in exceedingly dangerous to traverse. But the most marked progress has been made by Mr Lord's party, who are workiug the block of couutry between the Hokitika and Mikonui rivers. Sixty men are employed upon this contract, which has been carried on with such vigour that already 106 mi es of tracks are completed. This part of the country is being intersected by right lines that map it out in blocks according to the strict letter of the specifications attached to all the contracts; but which, so far, is only abided by in this instance, as in the others a departure from it is sanctioned with a view of opening up highways for the diggers into those sections of the country that, from their appearance and position, are rightly considered the most favourable fields for prosecuting researches. Mr Lord has also cut an outside track that connects the Hokitika river with the Hokitika gorge, and thence across to Greenland, near Eoss, thus enclosing that great basin of low land separating the Hokitika river from the Totara ranges. This basin ia very swampy towards the sea, but inland contains a stretch of low yet well-formed country that should, judging by its appearance, be highly auriferous; cross tracks will intersect it to facilitate the progress of prospecting parties. Mr Lord is sanguine that, before the expiration of six weeks, the terms of his contract will have been fulfilled. Messrs. Simpson and Son are at present employed in the neighbourhood of Sunday creek, from which they are cutting a line to the Teremakau, and one more likely to d.rectly benefit the miner could scarcely have been undertaken, intersecting, j»s it will, a series of terraces, than which none in the district present more striking indications of gold. In the Grey district, Mr Austin is making good headway between the Saltwater diggings and Arnold river. PROPOSED NEW MEMBEH.

We understand that two memorials have been sent from Okarita to Mr Eiward Barff, the goldfields member in the Provincial Council, one addressed to his Honour the Superintendent, signed by one hundred and forty-eight persons, praying that the district of Okarita may be specially represented in the Council i the other, a. petition to the Council, signed by lift ¥ fillip Fl •weekly mail service to Okarita. These will, we hear, be presented at once. "WESTJCAJNTD EEVEE. In his report for the last year Dr. Uyley, the Sugeon-Superintendent of Hokitika Hospital, makes the following remarks on the fever which at times is so prevalent on the "West Coast, and which has furnished the greatest number of cases for the hospitals :— In my last report I referred to the doubt which appears to exist among the medical profession in the colony regarding the type of fever which exists here, and I promised, having a large field for observation, to do all in my power to throw light upon the subject. In almost every case reported to have died from typhoid fever, I have made post-mortem examinations, and have found the characteristic lesion of typhoid fever, viz., ulceration of the intestinal glands in every case except two, in both of which the patients were carried off by an intercurrent attack of pneumonia at an early stage of the disease, but even in these cases the glands werej found inflamed, and only required time to become ulcerated. In two cases there was complete perforation of the bowel near the ilid caecal valve. In my last report I referred to a fever which I called bilious —remittent or relapsing —of which I had a few cases. It appears in this report as bilious remittent or yellow fever, of which there have been eight cases, two of which died. It is therefore the most fatal of the diseases which have occurred in the district. In both cases there were hemorrhage from mouth, nose, and in one case the ears, black vomit, and one died in convulsions. These are the characteristic symptoms of the worst forms of yellow fever as it occure in the tropics. There were only three cases of intermittent fever or ague, and

one of the cases was treated twice for the complaint. This disease is almost identical with the preceding in its nature and origin, the one running into the other. In the latitude of London, and five degrees south of it, the disease assumes the intermittent type; south of this line its character becomes remittent; still nearer the equator remittent becomes undistinguishablo from yellow fever. The last case of yellow fever, and which proved fatal, came from the Haast, where the bush, I am informed, more resembles the jungles of the tropics than that of most parts of the district. la mv first report, in May, 1805, I pointed out the cause of these fevers, along with dysentery, to be endemic—that is, produced by malaria —by which I mean bad air, whether from marshes or from decaying animal or vegetable matter, to which latter the term miasm is generally given, and all my observations have satisfied mc of the correctness of this opinion. Besides the fevers mentioned, there are thirtyfour called simple fever. I have called it simple, not because I consider it of different origin from typhoid or yellow fever, still less because I consider it identical either in its symptoms or its course with simple fever properly so called, but because there was an absence of the characteristic eymptoms of either of the fevers above named. It has, 1 believe, its origin in the same malarious poison which produces the others, and differs from them only either because the dose received was smaller or the bodily health better, or depends upon some other of the many causes which have been known to modify the action of the poison.