CANTERBURY

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 1, Issue 31, 24 April 1858, Page 4

CANTERBURY

We take the following highly interesting paragraphs from the Lytielton Times of 3rd inst.

We gain information by degrees as to the value of the West Coast Country. The last item has been supplied by Mr. Lee,* who has taken up a run on the Grey, where Mr. Maclcay had indicated the existence of about a quarter of a million of acres of available land. Mr. Lee bas been put in possession of his ran by the Maoris of the vicinity, and intends stocking it with importations of sheep by water, taking them up the river Grey by a road which he intends to cut along the banks as far as necessary. The whole available country in this district consists, it appears, of but 60,000 acres, one half of which is pasture land of a good sort, and one-half flat bush. Mr. Mackay's estimate was consequently much beyond the mark. Terapui, the West Coast Chief in that district, with his brother Tainui of Ivaiapoi, accompanied Mr. Lee, and have returned with him. They brin<» specimens of gold in small scales, which, they say, is brought down in quantities from a hill called Whakapoi, on the north side of the mouth of the Buller river in the Province of Nelson, by the native inhabitants of that place. Our Maori informants add that the gold is in immense abundance, and that crowds of both white men and natives are now at work at Whakapoi, the gold being found in the soil of the mountain when washed in the stream below. There is, of course, a great deal of Maori exaggeration in these statements ; but the existance of the gold in undoubted, many specimens having reached town. On the Waipara river, between Mount Brown and Mount Grey, an interesting collection of fossil remains of the Moa has been lately discovered. There are numbers of skeletons, all parts of which are to be found transmuted into rock. The toes and feathers exist there for the inspection of the naturalist, and will, no doubt, form a rich treat. They are found in boulders in a "bed of old sandstone and gravel and appear therefore to have lain for ages. We hope that Dr. Nelson, who has paid some attention to investigation of these fossil remains, will shortly report fully as to his discoveries.