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Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1382, 4 April 1865, Page 4

The Alhambra called in at Lytteiton yesterday on her way from Okitiki to Dunedin with a cargo of returned unsuccessful diggers for the two eastern ports. The yield of gold had been about 2800 ounces weekly, produced by about 5000 working and prospecting diggers. The town is said to contain about 2000 people, and the population is anything but stationary. The diggings themselves maintain their character of "a good poor-man's field." The gold is not thickly deposited, but it is plentiful over a wide area, and easily obtained, when once the labour of prospecting has been completed. Gold is now being obtained in the terraces as well as the river beds. Men were rushing about iu all directions looking for new spots; and though no absolute rush to any one place had set in, there was a greater movement towards the South than formerly. The rush is evidently the most extensive that has occurred in New Zealand, and the appearance of the town seems the work of magic. The diggers themselves, with the help of the Government, were about to push a road from the port to the diggings on the Six-mile Creek. There were still a number of people coming in; but, as may be judged from the passenger list of the Alhambra, nearly as many were leaving. These were generally men who had arrived with not sufficient means to go prospecting. Food was plentiful, but still exceedingly dear on the diggings themselves. The weather had been very fine; but the bar appears not to be passable for boats at anytime, and further accidents had occurred. The signals had been erected on both sides of the entrance.