THE WAKAMARINA GOLD-FIELD

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 174, 13 May 1864, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE WAKAMARINA GOLD-FIELD

(From the Kelson Examiner, April 30.) Our special correspondent’s report, which we give below, will furnish a faint idea of the discomforts which a digger has to~ encounter under the influences of a rainy day. We may, of course, expect to hear of individual cases of disappointment, but there can he no question that the reports from the Wakamarina are encouraging, and if the statements contained in our correspondent's letter prove correct, to the effect that good prospects of gold have been discovered over the wide district he names, the field must necessarily prove a very extensive one, at least amply sufficient to carry a considerable body of men, and afford them profitable employment for an indefinite period. While we are deeply sensible of the great responsibility which we incur by publishing statements which may induce diggers from a distance to migrate hither with a view to testing the Wakamarina gold-field, and therefore would religiously abstain from publishing any favorable reports which are not well authenticated, we are bound not to

withhold from the public any reliable information which may reach us from time to time. In addition to the statements of continued success which are coutaiued in our special correspondents report, we have learned Irum ilr. Hubert Hums, of Washington Valley, who with two other young men, his cousins, returned from the WaKamarina on 1 hursday evening, that they saw two diggers who were working a claim immediately in front of his party, take out in less than / two hours fifteen pounds weight of gold ! One of these diggers was a foreigner, and both were unknown to Mr. Burns. It is probable that they formed two of the party of runaway sailors who have, as our correspondent reports, met with such an extraordinary run of good fortune upon the diggings. They were working on the next claim to Bennett’s party, and it is said that the latter offered them i4OO fur four feet of tl leir claim, but the offer was refused. This lucky party, it appears, had felled a birch-tree growing on the edge of the river, and, in fossicking about its roots, they came upon this rich prize.

[from our special correspondent.] Wakamarina Township, Friday morning, 7 a.m. I arrived at Wilson’s claim, six miles up the river, on Wednesday morning, having travelled up the Wakamarina in one of those incessant down-pours of rain which make walking at any very disagreeable, but which time on this occasion, had about it, for me, somewhat tne character of wretchedness. In order that my visit to the different tents, for the purpose of gleaning reliable information, should be made with as little delay as possible, I, when I started, took with me nothing in the shape of additional clothing except a pair of socks, and a mackintosh lent me by Mr. O’Lauchlan, knowing well that I should not be denied a shake down in many of the tents up the river. The first two miles were passed as comfortably as could be expected ; then the rain, which till then had fallen but lightly, came thicker and faster, while the road became also more soft, ami a yellowish loamy mud, up to my ankles, was what I had at every step for the last three miles. I hose who read this letter from “Our Special Correspondent,” while seated at their comfortable breakfast table, will probably give their shoulders a shrug on reading that it was written beneath a tent about 3 feel by 5 feet, in which eight others were sitting; that the rain came down with a steady pour, and that the smoke from the lire at the opening of the tent came in in fitful volumes, blinding the eyes ami producing a not at all pleasurable sensation of choking. Many of your readers will remember Sam Slick’s “juicy day in the country.” What would that eminent author not have said of a juicy day at the diggings, flavoured by a dripping tent, a smoking fire rather stronger in smoke than in heat, and anything hut pleasant or soothing to the eyelids ; the constant visits of parties of diggers with not a dry thread about them, who boil their “ billy” and walk on, leaving behind them the portion of the bed on which they sat tolerably wet for the permanent occupants ? The extreme hospitality of lint lands party, makes their tent a point of call for all who know them, therefore on a day like this, one sees an incessant arrival of diggers and persons who have, as they say, “tried the river and found no claim,” and of others who, despite the rain, press hopefully forward. But news of the results of the several diggers is what you want. Let me therefore tell you that Michael Hurley, son of Mr. Hurley ol the Wood, has just sold to Mr. Allen, 17oz. 3dwts. sgr. of gold, the result of his nine days’ work ; his brother also sold lloz. 7dwt., got in the same time ; Sutton, of the Waimea, showed me seven and a half ounces of gold, and told me that his party never got less than one ounce each a day. I saw John Young (son of Mr. Young the carpenter), and his mate, sell Aid worth of gold each, the result of three days’ work ; it was tiie coarsest ami best-looking gold 1 have yet seen, and was not taken out of the river. A party of six runaway sailors have got 30 lbs. weight in nine days. Jacobsen tells me that he and his mate, Louis, got 7 lbs. weight in ten days, with a tin dish. Two other men, whose names I do not know, but whose gold I saw, got 4 lbs. weight in four davs, out of the banks. Some of Jacobsen’s nuggets are beautiful, and are the first I have seen here impregnated with quartz. Hurley told me that he saw two men, just above his claim, while fossicking in the rocks, take out with a knife what it required a double hand of one of them to hold. Harry Young is doing well; so are many others I could name. Rutland and "Wilson’s party made 44 ozs. last week, and 24 ozs. this week, until the rain stopped them on Tuesday evening.

Bftanett’s party, a little higher up, hut whom I was unable to see' in consequence of the flood, had, so Mr. Rutland informed me, made, up to Sunday last, 15 lbs. weight. Tlie Maories whom I saw to-day are all doing remarkably well. Moses Coleman is doing well. A party who set in behind Bennett’s claim (and here again Mr. Rutland is my authority), in the banks, get their gold in a small seam about the thickness of a man’s arm, and from it they have taken 11b in but a few inches. Snow’s party are doing very well, as did Disher’s. Waters and Batchelor are also doing very well. Several persons have measured oil the river claims of those who do well in order to ascertain how far they extend into the bank, so that they may sink behind them. It must not be expected that all who act thus will reap a harvest like those near Bennett’s, or that all who visit the river will do well, h,.t I feel quite convinced that the bank’s some distance from the present water’s edge, and the several creeks, are auriferous. The best gold I have yet seen was got from a ere k running into the river. Men are continually striving even now t) sell their gold. It is much to be regretted that no regular goldbuyer is permanently located here, as the diggers are really suffering great inconvenience by coming down with gold, and being able to sell only a small quantity'. Mr. Allen is buying gold, but he, I presume, would rather that others did so. I should not like to attempt making even an estimate of the quantity of gold now in the hands of diggers, although I may say, from all I have gathered, that it is something considerable. Cockram, who was down on Tuesday, could only sell one ounce, and had to return with the other gold he had.

There are very few “ Toms’’ yet at work on the -river, the gold being principally got by the tin dish, yet Mr. O'Sullivan! who has laid out the tracks, and who, of course, by his frequent walks up and down the river, has an excellent chance of judging of the number of diggers actually at work, says he thinks there must be upwards of one thousand men who are settled in claims or in good fossicking ground. Mr. O'Sullivan is helpless on account of the rain, yet still anxious to engage men for cutting the track and a few sidings, the former at 2s. per chain, by which men have made from IT 15s. to X2 a day, each. lie tells me that a track is now being cut across the hills from Earnell's in the Kaituna, to the river a few miles up, and this road will be but eight miles long, thus saving ten miles to persons who walk that way from the Wui-

ruu. He also tells me that gold has been discovered in Pine Valley, and other places on the Wairatt side, that it has also been found at the back of Timms’ station, and on the Kahuna river. Persons are now prospecting the 1 inline and Heringa rivers, nearer to Kelson than this, and the report ie vived yesterday, was that good prospects bail been obtained on the former river. Air. Carter; who was a digger at Ballarat, tells me that he feels sure that, notwithstanding the many who have returned to Kelson, that not more than one in four of those on the diggings know how to search lor gold, and he instanced cases where persons had already tried ground, and left it, which had afterwards been found exceedingly rich. Many of the would-be diggers who arrive, walk up the river, and turn back at the lirst disheartening report ; or walk up the river, and turn hack with those who are returning, and tell them “ all the ground is taken up.” Some walk, perhaps, a few yards above Ktitland's, may he prospect the river, and turn back, short of provisions, or because they only get the “ color.” The present rain will clear off a great many who should never have come here, and who will, as a matter of course, bring back doleful reports ; yet, as I walked up the river the day before yesterday, I saw several bars yet untouched, and when I spoke to returners, I was told, “ The river runs so sluggishly that no heavy gold can have washed as far.” What they would have said this morning about the sluggishness of the river, I know not, seeing it had. with one day’s rain, risen about 14 feet ! However, I can give you no better evidence that a great many of those who return are not fitted for the gold-fields, than by saying that Mr. O’Sullivan still wants men at the price I have named.

The rain of yesterday and the night before was certainly something to be remembered. Haiti on the diggings, rain which flooded the river, and which at last forbade any chance of getting a fire, may be a bad thing to read about, bat what must it be lor those who have to walk through heavily-tim-bered land, aud in a newly-cut track, with the rain pouring steadily down, and you so wet that you ean feel the water trickling

coldly down your hack; feel it and the mud j in your shoes at every step yon take ; see it i dripping from your face ; feel it in your ears, your hair, everywhere; you are wet, mucky, and miserable, and, when arrived at the tent at which you will stay, cannot feel at all cheered to see but a miserable struggling skeleton of a tire, which fitfully flares into life, then subsides into a smoky mass that well-nigh chokes you by the quantity of smoke, curried by the wind, as a matter of course, straight into the tent in which you are sitting, in the questionably pleasant occupation of trying to dry your clothes. There was “ water, water, everywhere,” while now and again, amidst the shower, could be heard the spasmodic attempt of a robin to send forth Ins familiar note, but its sound was hushed by the river's roar, which was now running some twelve feet deep, and rising rapidly. Every crack in the rock, each depression in the soil, sent forth its petty torsent, whilst waterfalls were plentiful enough : one of them, which I saw yesterday, must have been fifty feet high. Returning diggers still come in, frightened, I presume, at the rain ; they sell their dishes, tents, picks, and blankets, for almost nothing, and yet say they will return again with finer weather. If two wet days thus frighten them, what would a wet winter do? There are now thirty-five tents in this canvas town. I have just spoken with two men who hava returned from the head of one branch of the 'Wakamarina river. They say that high up the river there are large veins of quartz intersecting the slate, while at its head the whole country seems nothing but a mass of white quartz with slate veins, rising to a height of 100 feet and upwards, that there are no washing bars formed, the river running so rapidly, yet wherever they prospected right up the river, they got gold in good quantity, though not sutiicient to pay them because food was so difficult to get at. To give your readers some idea of what provisions and tools cost here, I should tell them that fresh meat is, for beef, lOd. per lb. mutton, per quarter, 155., soft bread imported from Nelson, per 41b loaf, os., biscuits, Is. dd., per lb., llour, 80s. per lOOlbs., bacon, os. per lb., sardines, Is. Gd., picks and shovels, 10s. to l^s.