WEST COAST GOLD-FIELDS. LITTLE GREY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 37, 17 April 1866, Page 3

WEST COAST GOLD-FIELDS. LITTLE GREY.

I first wended my way up the entire length of the Maori Gully, making special enquiries from each claim-holder as to his prospects, his depth of washdirt, and the amount of stripping. I found the latter averaged from two to six feet, and the prospects varied sometimes giving one grain to as high as two dwts.. but this last was most exceptional, the washdirt averaged from six to twelve inches, and in rare instances to eighteen inches, the gold being on the bottom generally, and the heaviest was obtained in picking up about three inches of rotten slate bottom. In one instance I saw about three dwts, of this "washed to the dish, I also

noticed here that wherever the best gold was to be got there was least supply of water to be had, hardly enough to supply a small cradle being obtainable, and worse still, I could not see a prospect of the necessary element being introduced without very great expense and trouble being incurred. As a pleasant relief to this, however, I came upon a terrace which at once took my fancy as one that seemed a likely one for gold, and I was not deceived, as the following will show: in walking over it I counted nine holes sunk, and accordingly I made enquiries about the prospector, whom. I found. The result of my enquiries tended to show the average depth of stripping two to four feet, washdirt three to twelve inches, getting deeper towards the hill, and with prospects of one to three grains to the dish. I was not satisfied, but old digger like went to work myself and tested it, and that satisfactorily, fully corroborating my informant's statement. Were water brought on tliis, a good yield of gold would most surely reward the enterprise of the fortunate party who takes it in hand. For the sum of £600 it is thought water could be brought from the head of Big Creek sufficient to supply, not only it, but others where this deficiency is most experienced. As the country from St. Patrick's township down to where I was going, formed something like a triangle, taking the River Grey for the upper part of the angle, I was enabled to study more particularly the auriferous nature of the whole district better than if I had confined myself simply to the creeks or beds of the river where men were working. There is a succession of terraces and hills on the west side of the river extending from the junction of the main creek all the way up the saddle. As here aud there in the small gullies leading from them I could find isolated parties quietly working away, the fact of gold being there cannot be doubted, and some day ere long will, I have no doubt, witness this the scene of a busy and thriving population. Here, however, as elsewhere, the great drawback is the scarcity of water, and until that want is supplied all these terraces must remain as a sealed book. At about eight or Dine miles distance from St. Patrick's township I came upon the Little Grey, which I followed down for I should think 15 miles, often crossing, but never leaving its bed or banks ; along this eufcire distance the country still maintaius its auriferous appearance; but as no population was here working, the opinion I here expressed is only a speculative one. We here leave the gold-field proper, and arrive at Wood's Station, where, on the right bank of the Little Grey, as fine a track of open country as the eye could wish to see, is to be found. The opposite or western bank, however, still maintains its broken rugged appearance, possessing at the first glance all the characteristics of a gold-bearing district, and all the diggers who were with me, and with whom I happened to converse, bore me out iu this assumption. As I did not enter this terra incognita I cannot speak of my personal knowledge of its productive quality, but as the entire district is part and parcel of the same vast watershed in which Duffers, Nelson Creek, and other well known rich diggiugs are, the inference that in them new aud rich ground will yet be opened is only a natural one I must now close my report, but cannot do so without drawing attention to the belief I have, that good quartz reefs will yet be struck in that part of the country around Johustone's store. As the wash in Maori Gully. No. 1 is all broken quartz, etc., and the different samples of gold also bear direct evidence from small pieces adhering to them, of the existence of reefs in and around them. lam of opinion that here is the great gold matrix for a large district. — Correspondent of G. R. Argus April 11. A Staffordshire newspaper states upon authority "on which reliance can be placed," that in the new Reform Bill the Government will propose to confer the franchise on every person who pays income tax, or whose assessed taxes amount to 40s. a year. A long Passage. — The Leonorony, from London, bound for "Wellington, has arrived at Dunedin, after having been 200 days at sea.