THE WEST TAIERI RUSH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4732, 18 April 1877, Page 3

THE WEST TAIERI RUSH.

Yesterday, we dispatched a special reporter to the scene of the.gold discovery, at Outram, West Taieri, and he states that there is nothing whatever in it to cause & rush. It has been known for years that gold may be fotmd almost anywhere along' the bank or terrace, of the Taieri, between Outram and Hindon. Murdoch Brothers, the contractors for filling up the approach to the West Taieri bridge, which had been washed away by the late flood, had some men employed in excavating, earth from the bank,opposite Houlston's hotel .On Thursday last, on the lower side of a spur; they found some gravel upon a blue clay, in which there were quartz pebbles. One of : them tried a dish, and obtained a very fair prospect. Some of the gold is pretty coarse; q.nd it is all watwworn, showing that it has been brought some distance. It is probably a deposit brought down, in a former age from the Hindon district, when the stream was at a higher level. Many of these spots; [no :doubt, are good, and would pay- for working; but so far, they have been found to be of limited extent. They give nnich: tetter' prospects about the Lee. Stream than lower, down^ and they. do not pay. It has been said that there is a well defined auriferous quartz reef or lode in the immediate vicinity of this alluvial deposit; This, however, is not the case. There is a bit of an irregular, spur, such I as may be found anywhere in the hills, and that is all, so far. r There were yesterday 60 or 70 people, on the ground, and all who chose might take a dishful of gravel from the so-called prospect claim; - Onr: reporter aaw several dishes washed, arid all had the colour, while i in one instance there were three or four grains; There was no work done in^the claim yesterday;. Indeed, judging from the formation of the ground, the best of ithas: been used to fill up the approach to the bridge, and, as the bed rock rises, the wash dirt: diminishes in thickness. There are only a few inches of gravel, and a heavy topping of stiff clay. The gold, however, is heldchiefly by the stiff blue clay immediately under the gravel. .A good deal of the ground has been pegged out, and will be shepherded until the first six or eight shafts going down are bottomed; ; . ■ t ■ ■"