THE WEST COAST GOLD-FIELDS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 8, Issue 713, 30 December 1865, Page 3

THE WEST COAST GOLD -FIELDS.

(Prom tlifffi-jNelspn Colonist,' December 19.) Our smart little local steamer, the Kennedy, arrived here from the ilrrey and Ilokitika on Friday last. She brought 2,000 ounces from tue Grey," and 1,000 from Hokitika. Tlie Egmont arrived here from Hokitika early on Sunday morning, with 7,500 ounces of gold from that port. This makes the importation 25,240 ounces of gold into Nelson within six days. The news from both the Grey and Hokitika districts continues good. Ground which has been worked quietly to the south-west of the Grey is turning out very well. One party for the lasWx weeks averaged half an ounce per man perTruy, and others do much bjj*|ter. It is believed that all the terraces running towards the Arnold and Saltwater rivers are highly auriferous. Smith and party divided £25 per man last week. The North Beach diggings to thegaorth of the Grey arc turning out admirably. " Darkies" claim, "which was previously spoken of as having a shaft sunk in it, has been bottomed, and at sixty feet the wash dirt gavea prospect of one ounce to the dish. Great eUttement arose at this result of the first deep sinking attempted in this district. A man named Brown was killed in sinking a shaft fifteen feet deep. The earth fell in and smothered him. From Hokitika we learn that the summer sun, having melted the snow on the mountain ranges, has flooded the rivers and greeks, and injured the flumes and races of the miners of tli3*Kanieri and Woodstock, and so far stopped work in some parti?, until move poralrful machinery is applied. Bjiis said four parties of miners have united under tne title of the Kauieri Steam Drainage Company, and a couple of steam-engines will be erected within two Months. Commis.sioner's Flat in this district has produced excellent prospects, and is described as being very rich. Kanieri flat is being fully worked and yields handsomely. A paddock sixteen feet square, and seventeen feet deep, which took a small party a fortnight to sink, yielded at the bottom forty ounces of gold. Other claims are yielding equal results, and many more highly. Double pumps are working on the _|||nieri in numbers, and when the water is kept under. £20 a week is not at all a rare division. At Woodstock, where there is also a surplusage of water, the West Coast Times reports : — The richest portion of Woodstock (so far discovered) lies between Webb's claim and the first creek in the reserve, there being situated the claims I alluded to i#thc beginning of this report. Ryan and party are the lucky holders of the best claim, only the Aveek before last each man netting £75 for his week's work, with every prospect of a similar good fortune attending them for several months. I was invited into their tunnel, and allowed to inspect the face of the drive, which certainly looked firstrate, one seam of drift being full of gold, any part of it yielding half an ounce to the dish when prospected. Thg whole of the drive is, however, wash-dirt, and good looking gravel it is^full of large boulders, black sand nndrubble. The latter indication is considered a sure sign of payable wash-dirt. 1 nevc#found it fail yet, first remarking it on one of the bars of the l sttl r -^oddon, '" Victoria, a disagreeably long time ago. Like too many others, this party has suffered much through floods, the river backing up in their tail-face, half filling their tunnel, and consequently driving them out of it. +