OFFICIAL REPORT.

Otago Witness, Issue 571, 8 November 1862, Page 4

OFFICIAL REPORT.

From an official report from Mr Commissioner Keddell, which has been placed at our disposal by the Government, we learn that the new rushes at Potters" and "Conroy's" Gullies were attracting great numbers of miners. The latter locality, in consequence of one party having been reported to have lodged at one of the banks, upwards of 100 oz. of rough coarse gold, the produce of a few days labor, was the threat pointof attraction during the latter part of the week. About 400 miners are stafeff" fo be at work, many doing remarkably well, and numbers are still proceeding thither. The snow which had fallen in large quantities on the high ground, had tended to cheek the rush to the Umbrellas, but in the gullies from that range to the Kawarau, about 800 or 1000 miners are reported to be working successfully.

Timber was occasionally arriving in rafts down the Clutha, from the Lakes, aivl obtains a rapid sale. The township at the Junction of the Manuherikia is increasing in importance, and bids fair to rival that at Coal Point.

The population wag on the increase, and may be roughly estimated at from 3,000 to 4,000, but the large area of the field, including the country in the immediate neighborhood of the procia'tne'l district, rendered a close approximation almost impossible. From information we have received from a private and reliable source, the richness of the Dunstan field and of the surrounding country, bids fair to become almost unequalled in the history of gold mining. Our informant, who is an old Victorian, says that there has been nothing like it since the days of Old Bendigo. Ten or twelve new gullies are now opened and filled with miners, hard at work. The gold found there is of a coarser and heavier kind to the river gold, and contains very little of the black sand; that found in Conroy's Gully is very beautiful, water worn, and in flat pieces of about the thickness and half the size of half-a- crown. Where such gold is found the ground is generally complained of as being patchy. The gully discovered a wick or ten days ago in the western slope of the Umbrellas* still continues to carry a good number of miners, and even the snow has not deterred them from working. Miners going to Potter's Gully have to carry their provisions, &c, up a hill over 7 mile* long.