A SUCCESSFUL DIGGER.

Press, Volume XLV, Issue 7194, 2 November 1888, Page 3

A SUCCESSFUL DIGGER.

The Nelson Colonist has Interviewed M* Homan who recently returned to Nelacm fromMahakipawaoa urgeutpilvatoaflaira. Mr Homan reports It as rough country ac there is in New Zealand. *• Our party, which consisted of three others besides myself, went to work by a loekyehaneeon a very favourable spot, and started* drive into one of the terraces beside the creek* about four miles from thetop-of the Saddle, and some two miles up the Mabakipawa Creek. We evidently had a.M««cotte with us, for on our first morning we started work at nine o'clock, and by eleven were on gold, and it was not very long befar* we were convinced that we were on the right track in good earnest, Cor the stuff improved every foot we got fen. Of course we had a tough time of tt and had to remove a lot of stuff and open a face, but the first week's work, though w at the start were far front expecting so good a result, gave us not quite ten ounces at good gold. The second week's "graft" was even harder than the first, but the result was better than before, eleven ounces showing to our credit on the Saturday night. The third week we were still progressing, the gold befog in larger nuggets, and we totalled forty-four ounces. Juaat week has been our champion so far, as sixty-eight ounces have been divided between us for our * ork. "Of course you must not run away with the idea that there are many men who are doing so well as we have been fortunate enough to do. There are now, I calculate, some seven hundred men on the field, nob counting those at the Waikakabo, and of these one can almost reckon on the two hands the parties who are doing reuJly well. There are a lot of men, and really good practical miners at that, who are not earning their salt, and who at the present time are not likely to do so. Of course there are the usual frequenters of a newly opened goldfleld that is near at band to the larger cities, I mean the clerk and shopman brigade, who absolutely know nothing of mining, and are physically incapable of doing any good at it, more especially at a place like where we are, where boulders as big as houses have to be blasted, shifted, and got rid oi before you can do any good. There axe also a lot of good, strong, active voamj fellows, who are "real good plucked one, and deserve gold for their hard work, but then they don't know how to set about getting it. Oneparty I know in particular, boys from the Wairarapa, who work day and night like demons, and deserve to get) gold, but whether they will or not is a horse of another colour." You ask about the Waikakaho. I fancy , they will have to sink deep there before getting anything. Men are leaving every day, and in a week or two there will be very few left. Still I think the prospecta fair, though much work will have to be done. Taken ac a whole, the field has turned out well for some, and terribly' badly for the great majority. Tie not a poor man's field at all, and though it baa been kind toour party, I would be the last to advise anyone, however good and practical a miner he might bo, to go there. You have not a reasonable probabuity_oC success, but you have a strong probability of failure." In reply to a question abooA the giant nugget of the field, which waa reported to weigh twenty-six ounces, Mc Homan said that it was still not far away, being on view at the hostelry on the Grove road, Blenheim, over which the genial host Draper presides, but that estimable bonlf ace was in the habit of demanding that! libations to the extent of the "Colonial Robert" should be offered at the shrine, era the curious seeker after the giant golden curio is allowed to feast his eyes on the treasure that brought its lucky finder the comfortable sum o£ ninety golden sovereigns.