LAKE WANAKA.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2069, 22 December 1869, Page 2

LAKE WANAKA.

The Lake Wanaka district is, we arc happy to learn, getting rapidly opened up for settlement. Within the last year or two no fewer than five different stations have been taken up along its banks, and these pioneers of settlement have already had the representatives of other pursuits fallowing upon their wake. In addition to the agricultural and pastoral capabilities of the district, its maguificect forest lands afford an outlet, for commercial enterprise which, considering its proximity to the diggings of the Upper Clutha, can scarcely be too highly estimated. Its natural facilities for distributing timber could hardly be surpassed. Bafts can be floated down from the head of the Lake, and from thence by the Clutha .River to within a very few miles of Cromwell. This stretch of country embraces one 1 of the most rising digging centres in the Province. Bank sluicers, terrace workers, and deep sinkers are more or less distributed along the entire line of country through which it passes, and the celebrated Bendigo j Gully reefs are situated within a mile or two of one of its principal crossings. These workings, together with the prospects of the district generally, have given a marked impetus to the trade, and wood cutting begins to assume rather an important appearance. The forest extends from the head of the Lake right through to the West Coast, and embraces some of the more valuable timber, such as black and red pine, red and white birch, mero, ghoi, &o. The islands on the Lake are likewise covered with manuka, sufficient to serve the entire district with firewood for many years to come. To meet the requirements of this trade, a smart little craft of 22 tons burden has just been completed by Mr Theodore Bussell, ■■ and a schooner of 50 tons is in course of being built by Messrs Penn and Arron. In addition to the timber, these crafts will be employed carrying wool from the stations to Pembroke, -where substantial sheds have been completed for storing it. The Lake is thirty-five miles long, and a good serviceable track round it was lately completed hy the Government. This itself has materially assisted the prospects of the district. The wool season commenced a few weeks ago, and at the date of our advices a first instalment from Thompson's station had been sent into town. The clip looks good, but as yet wo have been unable to mention the probable yield. In pastoral matters generally the district stands very well. The stations have not yet been fully stocked, consequently the feed is plentiful, and prime fat cattle are reared. Last year wool was partly cold water washed, and as it returned well, it is understood that the same process will bo adopted this year. The district has also something to offer for the attraction of the digger. The hanks around the Lake are known to he auriferous, and from time to time some good alluvial gold has been found. Its diggings have never received anything like a fair tost. Few or no properly organised digging parties have been upon the ground, and what little work has been done was carried on by men engaged in other callings station hands and boatmen, for instance, who possessed no real practical knowledge of digging, and who merely took to it from time to time as a temporary change from their own legitimate callings. * Nevertheless, the crocks and terraces in the neighborhood are known to be highly auriferous. The Matotapu Greek, a tributary running into the Lake from the back of the Cardrona and Shotover ranges, is known to have produced as much as a pound weight of gold in a week for three men’s work. At present it is wrought by a few parties, who arc all doing very well ; and from the extent of the creek there can he no doubt hut that a great many more would find a promising field for their labors. The stripping varies from five to twenty feet in deptii, and the gold it produces belongs to the heavy coarse class. TheMatutuk Bivcr, another of the Lake feeders, is also known to he gold hearing. Only one party ever explored it further up than thirty miles, and as the explorer happened to he a shepherd in search of sheep, nothing whatever is known of its auriferous capabilities. It is described as a broad river, with a sluggish current flowing down through extensive flats bounded on each side hy high precipitous mountains. The mouth of the river was prospected a few mouths ago, and sufficient encouragement met with to warrant a prospecting party constructing a boat suitable for the navigation of the river, and otherwise equipping themselves for a tour up to its head. They set out a few weeks ago, but no information had been received from them down to the time our advices left. Information was anxiously looked for, as the current opinion is that something good would be found. Boundary Greek at the extreme head of the lake, is also spoken of as another likely place for good gold. A few diggers set in to it upwards of three years ago, They succeeded in getting some heavy

gold, ouc piece alone weighing as much as loz 14;lwts. The creek is subject to Hoods, and the party losing patience decamped, for one of the West Coast rushes which broke out just about the t ; me. Ever since then the ground has remained deserted. Now that the lake has been opened up and its resources better known, there is every probability that before long a few diggers will find their way to it. Quartz reefs are also said to be plentiful throughout the district, and it only remains for a few experienced reefers to test their value. To the lovers of the picturesque no place in Otago offers more ihduceme.its than Lake Wanaka. It is mountain, wood, and flood iu their richest profusion. Nature in its wildest grandeur, richest verdure, or most placid beauty, meets the eye on every hand. If romance is a pardonable feeling of human nature, it never was more fully justified than when dealing with magnificent landscape. Mountains towering above mountains until they reach the very portals of heaven —capped with perpetual snows and furrowed by natural convulsions, are only a few of the characteristics of the scene. The lake itself is a finely developed sheet of water fringed with a gigantic forest down to water’s edge and studded with well islands. That it must sooner or later becoMi a favorite resort for the tourist no one who has set eyes upon it can doubt. Meantime and in contemplation of that event a large hotel has been erected at Pembroke, and it has been already very correctly described in print as one of the finest out of the city of Dunedin.