A TRIP TO THE TADMOR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 79, 5 April 1877, Page 2

A TRIP TO THE TADMOR.

' .f *<>:•. f •-": ■ \ ...... [lit ANEW" C&UM.] If my object; iri.addressing you, Mr Editor, were to give a' reliable report of the real or supposed value of the newly -discovered diggings) ','. A-New Churn" would hf ye been the, last norndeplume I should have adopted, for some years experience of colonial life has convinced me that, of all statements made and opinions expressed, those of that class of pen designated by the name I have selected iire received with the greatest caution and, I may add, wth the greatest contempt. The contempt I dou.'t . mind risking-, and the paution I am particularly anxious to court, and therefore do I appear in the garb of those much despised individuals whose title I have borrowed for the occasion. Probably you will ask why I trouble yon at all, and to this .query I y-ill reply at odcc and in a very few words. lam desirous of placing before that large proportion of your readers who are in tlie same position that I myself was a week ago— l refer to those who have never seen "' a diggings"— a narrative which I shall endeavor to make as pleasant as possible of a trip that I was induced to make to what is rather erroneously called the Tadmor rush. I can vouch for my facts, auy .inferences I may draw may be considered worth that most valueless of all coins "a brass farthing." So much for the preface, and now my journey begins. Our first stage was Foxhill, the comforts of which hostelry form a very bad preparation for the hardships ope is supposed to undergo 'on a diggings. Had I not. known, from past ex'pcrience r of her kindly nature, that our good landlady was utterly incapable of a crime almost as serious as infanticide, I should have inclined to suppose that the gigantic ,birdbn which we supped was one of those | young am P.s which Mrs J. regards as the apple 'of her eye, but J was quite willing to accept 'her assurance, and tliajb of her attentive 'handmaiden, that it was "only # turkey." All the other eatables were ' of" an equally excellent description,. the beds were almost too. luxurious, and from the manner in which the horses conducted themselves on i the following morning I. should judge that ! the,stase was as well . kept -as the house. Sorting thence si;, half -past, seven in the moaning we in about twepty ipjnutes reached . the foot of Spooner's Eange, and for .abo^t tweut.y imputes the most portly of our party, ■ being charitably disposed towards the horses, | made the ascent, on foot. Then we once ! again took our seats, and owing to the fine- , ness of the weather and the hardness of the [ road w$ were able to trot merrily, along, until a quarter of an Ijour or so later' we had arrived at that spot rendered familiar to man r of the residents of Nelson by #j)e of Mr j Gully's admirable pictures, whicli a £$w ; months ago was exhibited in the shop window ;of one of our stationers. In an hour and a half from leaving Foxhill we were at Nicholson's well, where, at the summit of the range, is a-.nevcr failing supply pf water, for which i the traveller on foot cannot be tpo grateful. , Then commenced the descent, which is c?- --'. ceedingly steep and long, and took us nearly . half an 'hour to accomplish. The road, however, is good, therein differing much f wn] that on this side the range which abounds in deep: rats, that occasionally are somewhat difficult to avoid. . The next two . or three miles— iE my guesses as to measurements are' faulty I. hope to meet with the reproof I deserve from the Secretary of the Koad Board-^-were through "Norris' Gully," which ' was swept by the storm waters that created such havoc in the . Motueka district. The prevailing characteristics of the road in this delightful valley wepe rjits, Jiqjes. y-aryiug from three to six feet }h <jeptbi' and ftiplq "in width, and boulder stones. We were none or us sprry. to get-to the end of this portion of the road and.to eij<L,ep the Mpfuqka Valley, where the view was less confined, and the scenery as the passing clouds cast their shadows on the noble range of mountains in front of us, full of change, and at times really grand. To a strauger visiting Motueka Valley for the first time its general appearance is not such as to inspire an irresistible longing* to become a resident iv tbe locality. It has a bieak cheerless aspect, which to a considerable extent is owing to the absence of trees. Of course you do nofc expect to see many of these on the run, but on reaching the settlement of Upper Motueka and seeing a number of houses in comparatively close 'proximity the eye does naturally look for such signs of civilisation, but in vain. There are a few fruit trees in .come of the gardens, but they are of very diminutive proportions considering tlie time that has elapsed since tho Valleywas first settled. On one property, too, I saw two or three oaks, but with these few exceptions there is nothing l|ko systematic or even spasmodic tree culture One very pretty peep there is, namely, at the junctjon of the Motupiko with the Motueka Valley Here there are several houses and cultivated

. plois, and on one farm it was a treat to see some well-grown specimens even of the hackneyed poplar. In about half an hour from opening up the Motupiko Valley, the crossing over the Motueka river is reached, and immediately opposite is the entrance to the Tadmor Valiey, four miles up which is situated Hodgkinson's accommodation house. The road, which at one time was no doubt in excellent repair, is now in places in very bad condition, having been swept away by the waters of the Tadmor, which in the recent big flood overflowed its banks, rushed through the busb, and made a temporary course for itself down the road, with what result may be easily imagined. The soil here to the passer by appears anything but good, yet the cattle, of which "there are a good many about, are ia first-class condition and so ridiculously tame and lazy that it was with difficulty we could get some which were lying down on the road to move out of our way. The mutton, too, which was set before us at the accommodation house was so fat as to be scarcely eatable. Leaving our horses here we walked on to the diggings, "which are about a mile higher up the valley, and arrived there at the dinner hour, when scarcely a man was to be seen. The" scene, nevertheless, was a picturesque andinteresting one. The valley is about a quarter of a mile wide with steep wooded hills on either side, the river being to the right hand as you go up. In the centre is Mr Biggs' house and clearing, while dotted about were numerous tents, from many of which the smoke of the cooking fires was curling upwards. The riverbed presented a strange appearance. ' "Here there was a huge heap of "tailings," there a deep hole which was. then being worked, while slujee boxes, and dams, and-small races cut in the shingle were to be sceii in every, direction. ' And here for the information of those who have never witnessed a "diggings" I may describe the method of working, taking as an illustration Parata's claim, one of the best in the river. The water being dammed back, there' was, immediately below, a hole from which the auriferous dirt was being taken. This is found here about two feet beneath the present surface (the soil having been washed away by the flood), and is from two to three feet in thickness, so that the hole when the bottom is reached ia some fire feet in depth. Across the hfele from the upper to the lower bank is a woqden sluice box a foot or so wide, a?d the same iv depth, placed at such an angle that the water flows through it with considerable force. At the lower end is the " ripple box," of the same dimensions as the s'uice box,but with this difference that it is placed on a level, and across the bottom are nailed a number of small battens. This and a pump to keep the hole clear of water constitute the whole of the necessary appliances. One mau is required to keep tho pump going, , and two are engaged in shovelling out the wash dirt aud throwing it into . the sluice box. The gravel and stones are washed down the box by the powerful curreut of water flowing through it, and the gold lodges between the "ripples," which are cleaned out at the end of each day. At the mouth of the ripple box a race is dug through the river bed to convey the water to the next, olaim, and here a man is kept at work all day up to his knees in water clearing it of the debris that comes down the sluice boxes, which is shovelled ont and piled up by the side of the race, constituting the heap of "tailings," of which, as I said before, so many are now to be seen on the river bed. It was interesting to see the various wooden leads and races cut through the shingle, by which the river bed was intersected, in order to convey the water to one or another claim as might be required, and one could not help thinking what a terrible mess will be made of all this work by the first flood that occurs, after whioh the whole will have to be done over again. Above, below, and to the right and left of Parata's workings, where his party arc said to be making £12 per week per man, are other claims where operations are in full swing, and when dinner, at which all hands were engaged at the time of our arrival, was over, there was a complete change in the appearance of the river bed, which, instead of a deserted, now presented a busy and most animated scene, fifty or sixty men being hard at work within two or three hundred yards up aud down the river. Biggs' claim, also in the river bed, is immediately above Parata's, aud higher up again a. claim is being worked in the bank, a much larger- amount of Jafoar be(ng required, here, as some ten feet of the surface, consisting almost entirely of blue clay, has to be removed before the washdirt is reached. The prospects, however, are excellent, and a dish of stnff whicli. was washed out for us yielded over a grain and a half of gold. As soon as a sufficient quantity of the dirt has beeu obtained it is the jntentipn of tbe party to cut a race from the creek higher up the flat, by. which to supply themselves with the necessary water. In the hill side immediately opposite Parata's claim two or three small drives, : looking like exaggerated rabbit-burrows' have been made iuto the hill, and here, wp , wepe informed, e^oeHeqt prospects had heeq obtained;; Indeed, the general opinion seems to be tbat the wboje of the hill-side contains gold, in payable" quantities if water were procurable for sluicing. This, however, would invClvea task requiring the expenditure of a large sum of money, variously estimated from £5000 to £8000 as the water would haye to be brought adistance of from twelve to fourteen miles in order to take it to such an elevation a^ yould render it of real use. If, however the existence qf payable gol*4 oyer the whole hill-side were ' satisfactorily proved the construction of a race would be a speculation that would yield a very handsome dividend to any individual or company undertaking it. A remarkable instance of the, peady pbedlence rendered by fhe Jri^e digger i to a' properly constituted authority occurred j during my.brief stay at the Tadmor. Two parties were desirous of setting to work lower down the river than the other claims, having found excellent prospects iv the ground they had taken up, but there was a disagreement between them relative to the supply of water. The details of the dispute it is not necessary to relate, but the result of it was that for ten days they had remained idle awaiting the arrival of the Warden, who visited the field the day that I was there. It was evident that the dispute created a good 4 e ;ll P£ iR t ?F? st among others- besides the parties tljemsel^e, a§ the Warden was accompanied by a little crowd of between twehty and thirty nieu as he visited the spot, and hd4 an open air enquiry on the river-bed into the merits of the question. In less than half-an-hour he had giveu his decision, or rather, recommendation, for the land being freehold property he, as a matter of fact, had no jurisdiction, and ten minutes later the men who had pre-errcd to remain idle for fen days rather than give way upon a point in which each party coiceived themselves to be right, bad commenced work thoroughly satisf cd to accept the award of the umpire. It is true that the Warden (Mr L. Broad) is a man of considerable experience in goldfield matters, aud possibly it was to a large extent owing to this that his decision was so readily acted upon, but as oue grain of fact is worth a bushel of argument I have motioned this little incident in Of der to oppvince those who a.c of opinion that ' diggers are a lawless class bf men that they liave formed q, wholly mistaken estimate of their character. I wish to take this opportunity of {banking those of the miners who so willingly attorned me any Information I asked for. As a new c'mm find wholly ignorant except from hearsay, of the manner in which gold digging operations were conducted^ I '

have ro doubt that some of my questions' appeared absurd to the old and practical hands to whom they were put;, but they were all answered with such readiness aud so much courtesy that it was with great regret I left a spot where so much Was to be so pleasantly learned. (For continuation of News see fourth page)