LATEST FROM THE OTAGO GOLD FIELDS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVI, Issue 912, 7 August 1861, Page 3

LATEST FROM THE OTAGO GOLD FIELDS.

We make the following extracts from the Otago , QolonUt' of the 2nd August. In a summary of that date it gives a history of the discoveries at Tuapeka aud goes on to say :—

All the subsequent accounts up to the present time are confirmatory of those first received. Other millies have been prospected, and are believed to he even richer than that in which the operations have been hitherto principally carried on, but the want „f water will increase the difficulty of working. The Superintendent and the Escort have paid a second v i s it to the gold field, from which they returned on Tuesday, eveniug, bringing, however, only 2000 ounces of the precious metal. The total quantity received in town is now about 5000 ounces ; but nearly double that weight is supposed to be in the possession of the diggers, who appear to be tenacious of parting with the glittering novelty at the present price, until at least its real value is ascertained ; and certainly 70s. per oz. is a low figure, if tbe gold is really as good as it appears to unscientific eye". The Sydney steamer will, however, bring t j, e result of the assay, and we may shortly expect the receipt of gold here to exceed the whole export from the Nelson fields during 1859 and 1860, which amounted to some 12,000 ounces. As the exciting intelligence of the gold discovery became more widely known, adventurers hastened from all quarters, and the province has been almost drained of able-bodied labour, which is now concentrated at the diggings. We have no recent news from Southland ol a very positive character, but we have reason to believe that the same state of things obtains there. From Canterbury there have been a few arrivals, and many more are immediately expected. Altogether from 1600 to 1800 persons have visited the diggings, but of these many have returned and are still returning to town. Of the remainder, some are reaping an ample harvest, though we think our contemporary's estimate, that one-third are making their fortunes, is a high one. Others are working at day wages, which although paid at nominally a high rate, is, all things considered, scarely an improvement upon their present position. Many have returned who ought never to have started, being wholly unfitted for the fatigue and exposure attendant upon gold digging and without means to enable them to await the process of acclimatisation in idleness. The weather was unusually fine for some time after the discovery was published, which no doubt afforded a strong temptation to manj ; but for the last fortnight il has been cold and wet, and sickness has prevailed to a considerable extent on the diggings, though this is denied by a correspondent of our contemporary. The roads, too, have been so cut up by the unusual traffic as to be in some parts almost impassible; and the price of provisions, which has hitherto been reasonable under the circumstances flour selling at £60 to £70 per ton, and other articles in proportion—would be thereby seriously increased^ but the transmission of goods coastwise to the Waihola Lake, by which the whole cost of transit to the diggings is brought down to about £50 per ton, will probably prevent a rise to any alarming extent.

The greatest order has hitherto been maintained on the diggings, and a resolution has been unanimously passed against the sale of spirits. This gratifying state of things, however, scarcely affords an indication of what may be expected upon the influx of a mixed population, an instalment of which came in on Wednesday, the Lyttelton steamer having brought about 20 passengers from Canterbury; the Omeo, 50 from Melbourne; and Lord Ashley, about 70 from Sydney, &c, en route to the diggings.

Any attempt to predicate the ultimate result of this discovery to the province, and indeed to the whole island, would be absurd. Its immediate effect has been put a stop to all public works and private enterprises— to leave our fields untilled and our flocks intended,—and to divert all commercial operations into the one channel for the supply of the necessities of the gold diggings. This, however, will be hut temporary; but we may safely anticipate that the next six months Will witness a complete revolution, social, commercial, and we fear moral, in all our relations and circumstances. The following extract from a letter recently received has been sent to us for publication, and will no doubt prove interesting to our readers:— You ask me to give you some information about this gold field on which I am now foiling and, though sorely tired with my day's work, I cannot resist the claim you have upon me. The scenearound meis,indeed,a strange one, and strangely contrasts with our position but a few short weeks aga I cannot describe our locality, but it is one with which you are doubtless familiar from having visited your cousin's sheep farm in the interior. Around me are grouped the everlasting hills in dark and frowning magnificence, and at my feet meanders the little rivulet from which the place takes its name, which yesterday was as clear as crystal, but to-day flows a turbid and unseemly stream The hills, which are about 1200 feet high, reach the plain m well rounded and rapidly-descend-ing spurs, broken here and there by a protruding mass of quartz, or the hard and serrated outline of a projecting ledge of slate. The valley of the mapeka is one of these clefts in the mountain range, extending some mile and a-half from the spot where it opens out into the plain; and this streamlet rises from a series of raviues which conllP v uPP er end 5 bere is a kind of basin or anuvially filled up lake, which at present is being taken up by the newly-swarming diggers, and wnich, it systematiqally worked with Californian Pimps, and the ordinary appliances, will be richly emunerative; already a judicious perseverance has W«epa! ,by a Plentiful suPp!y °f »«ggety gold, uutthe sinking | s comparatively deep—some 10 18 feet—and in consequence, at this season of th iT Very wet Thr°ugbout the whole extent ne labours of the diggers are rewarded with varied 2r>T S!m °ne cla"n a Party m' dy be extracting >to 40 ounces a day; while in that adjacent to it d»cely an ounce greets the scrutinizing gaze at we dose of the day's labour. The same character's"? prevails in the short and rapidly-ascending int °" l either ssde* -A- peculiar formation may wcept the gold washed from the neighbouring an n ™ m the plain a similar formation, causing A4w/epSit he Btl'eam ' may Uie origi" °f a On the whole, I think I may describe my brother thn^k aS a BUCCessful and satisfied class, and inough sanguine persons fix the average yield _t ounce per man, my observations would induce an/? l° Pkce ifc at more than „alf thafc quantity, fri V^ the more Bat' sfod of these conclusions a Z the{; lct of labour being obtainable at a pound th I' r ask me how *fc is« considering the jwnber of me n at work, that the remittances are °, Skater, and I candidly confess you have fairly on Z«? ™6' There Cannot be ,eBS t,,an 2000 men Bull" fua Peka and among the neighbouring °, cs ' and as you justly observe, the escort returns do not exceed 2300 ounces. I believe that not only } mve large q U . tntit ; es f oun( j t h eir way to own by private hands, but that large quantities re either waiting .for higher prices, or unwilling to Qf un£'J they can own pounds instead of ounces. m* °. ne.. '"" ere ca" be no doubt, that as a poor «an s diggings this gold field is an established fact, a go where you will within an area of several

mile, there w.ll be found a fair day's wa „ e fo reward a a,r ( w B i ilbom , The * ™£ to are extended along the banks of the TnapeW. ft nestling m every little nook may bes^n c diggers'tent, «„d the.bine smoke of his fir" my be seen arising from amid; the mountain defile, _ feel iully c ».,vnu !0 ,l that though our gold fieldl will not produce results so astonishing as the d.Wie n Australia we are as yet only on the threshold oi our gold domain, universality will be its eh ir l temtio and a liberal and uninterr,t sJpb \y easily obtainable, its chief features. lle who U ot content with the ordinary reward of labour, JS an occasional nugget of modest dimensions, had Our held is adapted to a quiet, law-lovino- community, that of Australia to an excited Uune

|"*'BOM A COBBESPONDENT.] Mr. Read, accompanied by Captain Baldwin, a neighbouring runholder, and John Cargill, an old experienced Australian digger, left the di^inb-g last week, on a prospecting expellithm. Ihey returned on Thursday after a week's absence, and the intelligence they bring must be truly gratifying to those who have the advancement and prosperity of the province at heart; for whatever a few interested parties may think to the contrary, I believe every reflecting member of the community must admit when the present excitement has subsided and given place to the second and more proper phase of digging life, when digging shall have become a distinct and settled occupation, and the unfit (at present, a host whose names are legion) shall have returned to.his more immediate and proper calling—that the advantages ot this province derived from the existence of a workable and payable gold-field must be great and important. Mr. Read has, I believe, discovered the existence of such a gold field, extending ten miles towards the Waitahuna; and I have seen a specimen ol half an ounce washed out of two tin dishfulls of clay. This gold is heavier than the generality of that found in the present gully; and is—to a casual observer at least—of an equally fine quality. But we are not confined to the discovery of fine gold only, tor I had in my hand yesterday, a uuo-o- e t weighing 17 dwts.; and I understand the owner? a man named Brown, has found several others, varying in weight from a quarter to three quarters of an ounce. His Honor the Superintendent, accompanied by Mr. Strode, the newly-appointed Commissioner, and the mounted escort, arrived here on Friday via the West Taieri. The amount of gold they carry with them I have not as yet ascertained: but I know it will fall far short of the actual amount on the field. The diggers, for the most part, have but very contracted notions as to what is to become of their " dearly beloved dust" if entrusted to an escort. " They will lodge it in the bank, and the bankers will buy it at their own price," or, " the bankers won't know me when I ask for my ba<*," are some of the doubts which suggest themselves*^ the unenlightened, and make them stick to their gold. Whilst a wish to send a good round sum at once has a similar effect upon the owners of twenty and thirty ounces.

Lying at full length with my tin dish for a table, such is my present writing position—no very pleasant one, I can assure you, nor likely to make one's pen that of a ready writer. But, Eheu ! this Golconda life is no comfortable one.