THE WAKAMARINA GOLD-FIELD.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXIII, Issue XXIII, 30 April 1864, Page 2

THE WAKAMARINA GOLD-FIELD.

The fine weather which had prevailed uninterruptedly since the discovery of gold on the Wakamarina, and which proved so propitious to the diggers, both to those engaged on the spot, and to those who were making their way to the scene of action, underwent a complete change in the early part of the present week, and although at the moment we write it has partly cleared up again, ifc still looks somewhat unsettled and threatening. Our Special Correspondent's report, which we give below, will furnish a faint idea of the discomforts which a digger has to encounter under the influences of a rainy day. We may, of course, expect to hear oi many individual cases of disappointment, but there can be no question that the reports from the Wakamarina are encouraging, and if* the statements contained, in our Correspondent's letter prove correct, to the effect that good prospects of gold have been discovered over the wide district he names, the field must necessarily prove a very extensive one, at least amply sufficient to carry a considerable body of men, and afford them profitable employment for an indefinite period. While we are deeply sensible of the great responsibility which we incur by publishing statements which may induce diggers from a distance to migrate hither with a view to testing the Wakamarina gold-field, and therefore would religiously abstain from publishing any favourable reports which are not well authenticated, we are bound not to withold from the public any reliable information which may reach us from time to time. In addition to the statements of continued success which are contained in our Special Correspondent's reports, we have learned from Mr. Eobert Burns, of Washington Valley, who with two other young men, his cousins, returned from the Wakamarina on Thursday evening, that they saw two diggers who were working a claim immediately in front of his party, take out in less than two houvajiftcen pounds iveight of gold! One of these diggers was a foreigner, and both were Tinknown to Mr. Burns. It is probable that they formed two of the party of runaway sailors who have, as our Correspondent reports, met with such an extraordinary run of good fortune upon the diggings. They were working on the next claim to Bennett's party, and it is said that " the latter offered them £400 for four feet of their claim, but the offer was refused. This lucky party, it appears, had felled a birch-tree growing on the edge of the river, and, in fossicking about its roots, they came upon this rich prize. It will be seen, from our Correspondent's report, that not only had a considerable party of diggers already arrived from Wellington in the Wanganui steamer, but intelligence had been received that two steamers had been despatched from that port with a view to the conveyance of Otagan diggers to these shores, 1 The two steamers, whose arrival may be expected to-day from the South, will also probably contribute their quota to our present mining population, for we know that the intelligence of the recent- discoveries on our gold-fields has reached Canterbury, and it is more than probable that the last trip of the Ladybird would be extended to Dunedin, although her engagements after arriving at Wellington were not ascertained at the time of he' leaving Nelson. j

[froji oxtb special corbespondent.] "Wakahabina. Towsship, Friday Morning, 7, a.m. I arrived at Wilson's claim, six miles up the river, ou Wednesday morning, having travelled up the Wakamarina in one of those incessant down-pours of rain which make walking at any time very disagreeable, but which, on this occasion, had about it, for me, somewhat the character of wretchedness. In order that my visit to the different tents, for the purpose of gleaning reliable information, should be made with as little delay as possible, I, when I started, j took with me nothing in the shape of additional clothing except an extra pair of socks, and a mackintosh lent me by Mr. O'Lauchlan, knowing well that I should not be denied a shake-down in many of the tents up the river. The first two miles were passed as comfortably as could be expected ; then the rain, which, till then had fallen but lightly, came thicker and faster, while the road became also more soft, and a yellowish loamy mud, up to my ankles, was what I had at every step for the last three miles. Those who read this letter from " Our Special Correspondent," while seated at their comfortable breakfasttable, w ill probably give their shoulders a shrug on reading that it was written beneath a tent about j 3 feet by 5 feet, in which eight others were sitting ; that the rain came down with a steady pour, and that the tmoke from the fire at the opening of the i tent came in in fitful volumes, blinding the eyes and producing a not at all pleasurable sensation of ' choking. Many of your readers will remember I Sam Slick's " juicy day in the country." What \ would that eminent author not have said oi a juicy day at the diggings, flavoured by a dripping tent, a smoking fire rather stronger in smoke than in heat, and anything but pleasant or soothing to the eyelids ; the constant visits of parties of diggers with not a dry thread about them, who boil their " billy " and walk on, leaving behind them the portion of tho bed on which they sat tolerably wet for the permanent occupants? The extrtfae hoipiUh'ty of

Rutland's party, makes their tout a point of call for all who know them, therefore on a day like this, one sees an incessant arrival of diggers and persons 'who hare, as they say, "tried the rher and found no claim,"' and of others, who, despite the rain, press hopefully forward. But nevre o£ the results of the several diggers is what, you want. Let me therefore tell you that Michael Hurley, son of Mr. Hurley of the Wood, has just sold to Mr. Allen, I7oz. 3dwt. sgr. of gold, the result of his nine days' trort ; Lib brother also sold lloz. 7d\vt., got in the same time ; Sutton, of the Waimea, showed me seven and a-half ounces of gold, and told me that his party never got less than one ounce cach'a-day. I saw John Young (son of Mr. Young the carpenter), nnd his mate, sell £18 worth of gold each, the result of three days' work ; it was the coarsest and best-looking gold I have yet seen, and was not taken out of the river. A party of six runaway sailors have got 30 lbs. weight in nine days. Jacobsen tells me that he and his mate, Louis, got 7 lbs. weight, in ten days, with a tin dish. Two other men, whose names I do not know, but whose gold I saw, got 4 lbs. weight in four days, out of the banks. Some of Jacobsen's nuggets are beautiful, and are the first I have seen here impregnated with quartz. Hurley told mo that he saw two men, j-nsfc above li\s elaijn, -wliile fossicking ixi tile rocks, take out with a knife what it required a double hand of one of them to hold. Harry Young is doing well ; so are many others I could name. Rutland and Wilson's party made 44 ozs. last week, and 24 ozs. this week, until the rain stopped them on Tuesday evening. Bennett's party, a little higher up, but whom I was unable to see in consequence of tho flood, had, so Mr. Rutland informed me, made, up to Sunday last, 15 lbs. weight. The Maoris whom I saw to-day are all doing remarkably well. Moses Coleman has done well. A party who set in behind Bennett's claim (and here again Mr. Rutland is my authority), in the banks, got their gold in a small seam about the thickness of a man's arm, and from it they have taken 1 lb. weight in but a few inches. Snow's party are doing very well, as did Disher's. Waters and Batchelor are also doing very well. Several persons have measured off the river claims of those who do well in order to ascertain how far they extend into the bank, so that they may sink behind them. It must not be expected that all who act thus will reap a harvest like those near Bennett's, or that all who visit the river will do well, but I feel quite convinced that the banks some distance from the present water's edge, and the several creeks, are auriferous. The best gold I have yet seen was got from a creek running into the river. Men are continually striving even now to sell their gold. It is much to be regretted that no regular gold buyer is permanently located here, as the diggers are really suffering great inconvenience by coming down with gold, and being able to sell only a small quantity. Mr. Allen is buying gold, but he, I preijnnie, would rather that others did so. I should not like to attempt making even an estimate of the quantity of gold now in the hands of diggers, although I may say, from all I have gathered, that it is something considerable. Cockram, who was down on Tuesday, could only sell one ounce, and had to return with the other gold he had. There are very few " toms " yet at work on the river, the gold being principally got by the tin dish, yet Mr. O'Sullivan, who has laid out the tracks, and who, of course, by his frequent walks up and down the river has an excellent chance of judging of the number of 'diggers actually at work, says he thinks there must be upwards of 1,000 men who are settled in claims or in good fossicking ground. Mr. O'Sullivan is helpless on account of the rain, yet still anxious to engage men for cutting the track and a few sidings, the former at 2s. a chain, by which men have made from £1 15s. to £2. a day each. He tells me that a track is now being cut acrosß the hills from Farnell's in tho Kaituna, to the river a few miles up, and this road will be but eight miles long, thus saving ten miles to persons who walk that way from the Wairau. He also tells me that gold has been discovered in Pine Valley, and other places on the Wairau 6ide, that it has also been found at the back of Timms' station, and on the Kaituna river. Persons are now prospecting theTinline andHeringa rivers, nearer to Nelson than this, and the report received yesterday was that good prospects had been obtained on the former river. Mr. Carter, who was a digger at Ballaarat, tells me that he feels sure, notwithstanding the many who have returned to Nelson, that not more than one in four of those on the diggings know how to search for gold, and he instanced cases where persons had already tried ground, and left it, which had afterwards been found exceedingly rich. Many of the would-be diggers who arrive, walk up the river, and turn back at the first disheartening report •, or -walk up the river, and turn back with those who are returning, and tell them " all the ground is taken up." Some walk perhaps a few yards above Rutland's, may be prospect the river, and turn back, short of provisions, or because they only get the " colour.'' The present rain will clear off a great many who should never have come here, and who will, as a matter of course, bring back doleful repoits ; yet, as I walked up the river the day before yesterday, I saw several bars yet untouched, and when I spoke to returners, I was told, " The river runs so sluggishly that no heavy gold can have washed as far." What would they have said this morning about the sluggishness of the river, I know not, seeing it had, with one day'B rain, risen about 14 feet ! However, I can give you no better evidence that a great many of those who return are not fitted for the gold-fields, than by saying that Mr. O'Sullivan still wants men at the price I have named. The rain of yesterday and the night before was certainly something to be remembered, Rain on the diggings : rain which flooded the river, and which at last forbade any chance of getting a fire, may be a bad thing even to read about, but what must it be for those who have to walk through heavily-timbered land, and, in a newly-cut track, with the rain pouring steadily down, and you so wet that you can feel the water trickling coldly down your back ; feel it and the mud in your 6hoes at every step you take ; 6ee it dripping from your face ; feel it in your ears, your hair, everywhere ; — you are Met, mucky, and miserable, and, when arrived at the tent at which ' you will 6tay, cannot feel at all cheered to see but a miserable struggling skeleton of a fire, which fitfully flares into life, then subsides into a smoky mass, that well-nigh chokes you by the quantity of smoke, carried by the wind, as a matter of course, straight into the tent in which you are sitting, in the questionably pleasant occupation of trying to dry your clothei. There wm water, "wator

everywhere," while now and again, amidst the shower, could be heard the spasmodic attompt of a robin to send forth his familiar note, but its sound was hushed by the river's roar, which was now running some twelve feet deep, and rising rapidly. Every crack in the rock, each depression in the soil, sent forth its petty torrent, whilst waterfalls were plentiful enough ; one of them, which I j saw yesterday, must have been fifty feet high. Returning diggers still come in, frightened, I presume, at the rain ; they sell their dishes, teuta, picks, and blankets, for almost nothing, and yet say they will return again with finer weather. If two "wet days thus frighten them, what would a wet winter do ? There are now thirty-fire tents on this modern canvas town. I have just spoken with two men who hare returned from the head of one branch of the Wakamarina river. They say that high up the river there are large veins of quartz intersecting the slate, while at its head the whole country seems nothing but a mass of white quartz with slate veins, rising to a height of ICO feet and upwards, that there are no washing bars formed, the river running so rapidly, yet wherever they prospected right up the river, they got gold in good quantity, though not sufficient to pay them, because food was so difficult to get at. A party have also crossed over from Timms' station to the Watamaiina, and are now returning that way for provisions. They say it is not a difficult road, but that it passes over a gently sloping range of hills, and that the head of the Wakamarina is distant from the station only six or eight miles. Mr. Allen sends, I believe, five pounds weight of gold by the next steamer. That is, he has that amount now on hand, and purchased it in two days. To give your readers some idea of what provisions and tools cost here, I should tell them that fresh meat is, for beef, lOd. per lb., mutton, per quarter, 155., soft bread imported from Nelson, per 41b loaf, 35., biscuits, Is. 3d. per lb., flour, 80s. per lOOlbs., bacon, 3s. per lb., sai dines, Is. 6d., picks and shovels, 10s. to 12s. each. The Wanganui steamer from Wellington, arrrived at Havelock yesterday with forty- seven diggers, and they say that two steamers have gone down to Otago for others.