OKARITA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 6, 10 March 1866, Page 3

OKARITA.

A rush took place last Friday to the terrace at the rear of the workings on the Three-mile Beach, in consequence of a hole being bottomed with a prospect of seven grains to the shovelful. The rush of miners was so great that all the ground was pegged off in a quarter of an hour. Next morning over a thousand miners were on the ground at daylight, but, to their disgust, found they could not get one inch of ground, although tape lines were in active use all day. The sinking is through light sand, through which the water percolates freely, rendering the sinking difficult. Indeed, on Saturday no one succeeded in bottoming, although some sank a depth of thirteen feet. A good many parties intend procuring pumps, to test the ground thoroughly, and until the bottom is reached of course it is impossible for me to form an opinion as to the value of the rush. The prospecting paddock was much shallower than the other paddocks sunk on Saturday. The general opinion of the miners is, that this rush will not be of any account, as the ground is deep and wet, and very difficult to work on account of the wet sand " running" in as the paddocks are being sunk. Another drawback is, that after a few days rain the lagoon, on the boundary of which the workings are situated, rises to a level sufficiently high either to swamp a great many claims or greatly impede the working of them. The claims on this beach are not rich ; they will only pay good wages. The best claim I could hear of was paying from £10 to £12 per man per week. After passing the three-mile, a high perpendicular bluff, composed of cemented gravel, is reached, after rounding which the traveller comes in sight of the far famed five-mile beach, which extends a couple of miles, when another high bluff juts out into the sea. I have been on all the beach diggings on the West Coast, but for extent, richness, and number of miners getting gold, I must certainly award the palm to this famous reach. Owing to the immense influx of new-comers, the place was actually swarming with meu last week, drawn hither by the report of the richness of the ground, but they might as well have remained away, as every foot of ground was occupied by the " old identities " of the beach. A rare slant had these old hands ! as, after working out first rate beach claims, they were just in time to get better claims on the terrace. There are several real "homeward bound " claims here. Up to the present time some parties have cleared from <£SOQ to £1,500 a man. I liave reason to believe there are better claims still to be worked, as I know for a positive fact that a party having reached the washdirb the other day, tried a shovelful, which turned out no less than 7 dwt., and it is a frequent occurrence to get prospects of from 1 dwt. to 3 dwts. the shovelful. The stripping varies from 10 to 14 feet, and in order to make a " face" on eacli claim, barrows are called into requisition, with which the earth is wheeled out on the sea beach. x\.t the boundaries of ■nearly all the terrace claims lines are stretched from peg to peg, with plumblines attached — a fact significant of the value of the ground. One party I am acquainted with washed out 6Soz. in one day with a cradle. The accounts from Cook's River, and from all the beaches north of the Five Mile, are by no means encouraging. As far as I have been enabled to ascertain, the parties at work are only making very moderate wages. A small craft; arrived ftom Jackson's Bay on Friday, with several passengers I am well acquainted with on board. They give a very poor account of it, and dissuade any person from going there at present.