FROM HOKITIKA TO THE GREY, AND BACK.

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 817, 29 August 1865, Page 3

FROM HOKITIKA TO THE GREY, AND BACK.

We copy the following from a private letter Hokitika, August 12th.

Yesterday, I arrived here from the Grey 'Rush, having been one of the army of diggers which invaded your province some four or five weeks Dack. As you may feel interested in learning some particulars of the new diggings in Nelson Province, I will give you a short account of our trip, and tho causes which have compelled us to beat a retreat. You will remember that when I last wrote to you I was at the Threemile or Hau-hau Creek, only just making a living. When the good accounts came from the Grey Aye were not doiug even that, so we thought we might as well join in the rush as the news was very good. We started from Hokitika a few days after the news came of the opening of Red Jack's Gully. The road from here to the Grey township lies along the beach the whole distance, twenty-five miles. We got to the mouth of the river on tho second day after leaviug the Three-mile, camped there that night, and crossed the river next morning into your province. The distance from Blaketown to the foot of Maori Creek is twelve miles, the road is pretty fair with the exception of the first two miles, which for mud beats anything I havo yet seen. For that two miles we were actually walking knee deep in thick mud. Seven miles from the township we passed the coal mine, but I can give you no account of it as we only stopped there a few minutes. I merely saw the month of the tunnel which runs into the hill from the river bank. Close by is a small frame cottage, iv which I suppose the manager lives, and three or four tents occupied by the workmen. Five miles above the coal mine, but on the other side of the river (and still within Nelson Province, which is divided from Canterbury lower down at the Arnold) is Maori Creek. At the foot of the Creek, where it joins the Grey, quite a little township has sprung up. It is here that the goods are lauded, which are sent up the river in boats aud canoes. Maori Gully, the scene of the first rush, is a tributary of Maori Creek, and is eight miles from the landing place, or the Twelve-mile as it is called. Red Jack's Gully is six miles from Maori Gully. We were too late to get a claim in either of these gullies as hundreds of men had been ahead of us for some days. There are several other gullies besides the two menntioned, but they are very limited in extent, and some of them very poor. Those two gullies, Red Jack's and Maori, are the principal diggings. The former is said to be much richer than the latter, several parties there are said to be making from £20 to £30 per man per week. A great drawback to the prosperity of the diggings there is the high price of provisions, and the difficulty of getting them. When I left four days* ago, there had been no store yet opened nt Red Jack's, and only one or two small ones at Maori Gully, so that all the diggers at the former place were obliged to come down to tbe Twelve-mile, a distance of fourteen miles, for everything they needed, or pay a very high price for them at Maori Gully. The following were the prices of things at the Twelve-mile when I left: —flour, ls. per lb- ; bacon, 2s. 6d.; tea, 4s. 6d. ; sugar, ls. 3d.; candles, 4s. 6d. At Maori Gully these articles were about 50 per cent higher. After prospecting about there for three weeks, and not succeeding in getting on to any gold we were obliged to leave. Our means were too Tmited to permit us to stay there, where provisions were so high, unless we could get on to some payable gold, of which we did not see much prospect There were hundreds of men knocking about the ranges in all parts doing nothing. . I have no doubt that other gullies will yet be opened in that part of the country quite as good as Red Jack's, but prospecting there will always be a work of very great difficulty, and to carry it on a man needs money and a constitution of iron. ■ If your Government would cut a track through from the Grey to the Buller it would be of great assistance to parties prospecting, and would no doubt lead to some important discoveries, as in all probability the whole of the country between these two rivers is more or less auriferous. When I canie clown from Maori Creek there were rumors of a rush on the Arnold, and also of one some miles higher up the Gray, but no one seemed to know anything about them, except that there were parties getting gold somewhere in those localities. The regulations prevailing at the new diggings in regard to the size of claims requires a speedy alteration. At present, the extent of ground allowed to each man is no less than seventy-two feet square. I do not know whether this is a regulation made by the first miners at the rush, or whether it is in accordance with the Nelson mining laws, but if the latter the sooner it is amended the better. Many of the gullies are of very limited extent, and under the present system three or four meu can monopolise a whole gully. Unless a man is among the very first at a new rush he stands no chance at all. Claims of thirty or forty feet square for each man would be nearer the mark, and it is to be hoped that your Government will adopt mining rules and regulations as like those of Otago * and Canterbury as possible. Just as I wt\s leaving I heard that an official with some policemen sent by your Government had arrived at Maori Creek. On our return tve came down the Grey from the Twelve-mile in a boat. We came down in two hours, and paid eight shillings each. The trip is not without danger, as there are several rapids to come down, ancl a great many snags in the river, ancl no doubt we shall yet hear of loss of life in this river. AU the provisions consumed on the diggings are taken np to Twelve-mile at the foot of Maori Creek in boats and canoes at the rate of £"2'» per ton. Boatmen on the Grey are doing well, and making first-rate wages, but they certainly earn them. Going up they have to drag the loaded boat with ropes for half the distance over the rapids and other places, ancl are up to their waists in water nearly all the time. There are very few diggers knocking about Hokitika at present. A great many have returned from the Grey, but most of them have gone south, to a rush which is very highly spoken of. It is said to be about twenty-five miles south of Hokitaka, but it is very difficult to get any reliable information about, it. We have not yet made up our minds as to what we shall do, but have some idea of going back t) the Hau-hau Creek to see if we can knock a living out there. I am sick and tired of going to a rush. I have sent to Victoria by this mail, ancl hope in a few weeks to have the means of getting away out of the West Coast, for I begin to despair of ever getting anything here. Nearly five months here now and not two ounces of gold to my share. I received the letters you sent me ancl the newsi papers, except The Colonist, which is very irregular. The only numbers I liave received since June was one with tho English news in July, and yesterday one of July 18. What can become of them? Is the blame to be attached, to the Nelson Post-office or Hokitika? The leading article which appeared in The Colonist on the diabolical murder of President Lincoln was a very good one, and the writer of it knows a good deal more about American politics than many of the colonial editors, or at any rate is more honest than some of them. I have been for years in America, ancl know something of its people ; and there is no doubt whatever that slavery was the cause of the war. I see that the Melbourne Argus could not write an article on President Lincoln without insulting his widow.