WEST COAST GOLD-FIELDS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 78, 5 June 1866, Page 2

WEST COAST GOLD-FIELDS.

WESTLAND. The following mining news is extracted from the Grey River Argus : — " Since the absurd commotion that was got up relative to our report of the Little Grey diggings we have naturally been reluctaut to publish many particulars we have since received that have fully borne out the statements we made. It is well known that, in spite of the unfavorable conclusion so hastily arrived at by the miners the district has gradually but surely asserted its position as a first-class gold-field. The population has increased to about 1,000 men, the majority of whom are doing well, and the quantity of gold sent down is a further proof of the bona-fide character of the diggings. We yesterday had adduced a proof stronger than any yet afforded of the richness of the ground in the Little Grey district. A parcel of 300 ozs. of gold was sold to the Bank of New South Wales yesterday, the result of three months' work of a party of three men, who had been

working quietly in a blind gully on. the other side of the saddle. The parcel is the finest sample we have ever yet seen of West Coast gold, the whole of it being composed of heavy nuggets, fully 50 of which weighed over 2 ozs., and one weighed 12 ozs., others varying from 8 ozs. to 6 ozs. The nuggets are slightly mixed with rose colored quartz, and the gold is dark and very heavy. The party who sold this parcel state that another party who have been working in a similar gully not far from them have made fully 500 ozs. in the same period, and the gold is of a similar character to thafc above referred to. They also state that there is a number of gullies of a like description in the neighborhood, all of which are payable."