The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 106, 8 May 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1867.

f Since penning the article which appeared in our issue of yesterday, with reference to the route from the Baton to the Upper Karamea, we have had some conversation with a miner, named Harvey, who has been located on the Baton for years, and who informs us that he, in company with his mates, has repeatedly traversed the saddle leading into the Karamea Valley, (marked No. 1, on the plan furnished by Mr. Hough to the Government) and that he has never ex-/ perienced the slightest difficulty in gettingup the upper forks of Skeet's River to that saddle ; that in fact, a dray-road, at a very easy gradient, would be quite feasible. Harvey states that it could not be possible to find a better approach ."to the saddle than that which already exists on either side, and that any gradient is attainable from the spurs of the range down into the level country below. He also informed us that on the occasion of his present visit to Nelson, he started from the valley of the Karamea after', breakfast, and on reaching half way between the further side of the valley and the saddle, the party became enveloped in a thick mist, yet so easily could they discover the track, that they made their way to the lower forks of the Skeet River on the Baton, before noon the same day. The road from Nelson to the Baton — about 40 miles long — is an excellent and very direct one, through Waimea-west, Dovedale, and over the Motueka to the Baton ; and our informant assures us that a dray road — and of course, if eventually needful, a tramway — could be made from the Baton to the Karamea bend, from which point, we need hardly state, Mr. Rochfort's bridle track leads directly to the seaboard. There seems little doubt that if a dray road could be constructed on this route, by which supplies could be conveyed to the diggers (for whom there is abundance of room, both on the fiat country between the Mount Arthur ranges and those on the west side, as well as on those located on the wide extent of plain on the sea coast stretching from Colliugwood to the Karamea river, where the precious metal is known to abouud), that an immense mining population would speedily congregate there, who could only derive ««their supplies from Nelson./ In illustration of this assertion we may add that our informant, who is altogether deserving of credit, states that the diggers on the Baton have been waiting for the last 12 months expecting the Government to make a bridle track for them across the pass to which we have alluded, aud at last finding it utterly impossible to obtain supplies in sufficient quantities to last them for many days together, they had resolved to go to the Wakamarina and wait there until the Government had made the track which is so much required. We may add that but one opinion seems to exist amongst the diggers with whom we have conversed on this subject, as to the highly auriferous character of the country. In confirmation of this statement, we may mention that only a few days since a conversation between two of the Wakapuaka Maori chiefs was reported to us, which had been overheard by a proficient in their language, and which had for its subject the plentiful hoard of gold which their friends on the Karamea had accumulated. Looking at the obvious aud exclusive advantages

wiiich the development of this gold-field

would confer upon the people of Nelson, we cannot doubt that the Government will make atonement for the apathy of past administration by taking such steps as may set this mooted question at rest ; and if, as we confidently anticipate, it shall be proved that Mr. Hough's assertions, as well as those of our iuforraant, are borne out by facts, we trust that that its best energies will be employed in utilising a discovery which may, after all, prove quite as advantageous to this community — and certainly far more immediately so — as the formarion of a railway to the West Coast, an undertaking which, if it ever be accomplished, it would take several years to carry out.