West Coast Times. TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1806.

West Coast Times, Issue 228, 12 June 1866, Page 2

West Coast Times. TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1806.

The journals of the neighboring colonies, whilst throwing into as much shade as possible the large imports of gold received from this district, continue to give full prominence to all the disparaging comments upon Westland, thut can be gleaned from letters from disappointed and discontented miners. One of the choicest specimens of these communications appears in the "Argus" of the 29th May, and is quoted by that journal from the '^Creswick Advertiser." As the date of tho letter is so recent as the 12th May, it is probable that tho writer is still in Hokitika, from which place his letter is addressed. If so, he will have the opportunity of vindicating himself, if we are in any semse too severe in our strictures upon his representations of the district to which he has come to try his luck, and with, whose chances for fortune-finding he is dissatisfied. This gentleman states "It is an awful couiitry without a doubt. If we should have to live long here in a tent, it -will be the means of shortening our period on this earth." It will be consoling to his friends, under the circumstances, to know that he is notwithstanding, able togive them the assurance not only that he and his party " arrived hero all right," but that they "are at present in good health." The probability is, that he hasnot tested the healthfulness of tent life, for amongst tho charges he prefers against the district, is the expense of hotel living in town. " Board, ;> he says, "is £2 10s per week. Everything is overdone, and men are harder up here than in Victoria." Tho following is ft significant passage,

in the latter words of which there is unwitting truthfulness : ■— " I have been trying to get a billet— there are too many on tho samo lay!" What, do young men who come over here oxr pecting to get billets, and in the meantime board at hotels at £2 10s a week, fancy the circumstances of the West Coast aro ? How many "billets" do |they expect to bo created for them? The newspapers hero have never invited billet-seekers to come over on tho hunt for good situations. The writer of this letter has evidently no toste for the kind of life upon "which men in Westland prosper. Not only is it an awful country in point of shortening the periods of men's lives on this earth j but it has absolutely no gold — or none to speak of. " A week's sojourning on the diggings" enables him to speak with authority on \\m point, and- ho is backed by the testimony of his fellow adventurers. They *\ have been on several of the goldfields, but can get no show at all." Victoria it seems at present is bad, but " New Zealand is far worse." It is false to tho greatest extent, the news you receive about the goldfields, and for God's sake Jet no one come hero. With reference to the account we 'received about diggers getting £1 to £1 10s., it is all stuff, as we have found, and that to our cost." The newspaper which publishes this letter says, the writer and his com* panions aro young men all willing to work, and " have also the advantage of education ou their side." It i 3 not difficult to divine from this reference,, to their qualifications^ and from their own allusions to the cost of hotel living and the fruitlessness of billet-hunting, that they are not exactly the class to make their way on the goldfields, or to be entitled to pass an authoritative judgment upon them after " a week's sojourning." ' .

Let us set against these statements the distinct and conclusive evidence of facts. Whilst a party of young men who spend a week in testing " the various gold-fields" to find a show, write back to their friends that the reports of the great gold yield of this district are " mere stuff," and " false to the greatest extent," what are the actual statistics, which it would at least bo more honest in the Melbourne papers to quoie, than^ the querulous complaints of every impatient and disappointed adventurer ? We are not going to resell 'the story of tho past, nor sum up the total of the gold yielded by the Westland mines since their opening, nor even since tho commencement of the present year. The history of each month is but a repetition- of the history of the preceding ono. Wo will bo content with citing the statistics- of the month just closed— so far as they are available—as illustrative of the whole. We find that at the port of Hokitika alone there were cleared between tho 12th May and the 11th June.inronndnumbcrs 30,0000z5. of gold (the exact figures being 29,9680z5.), paying ■ duty to the amount of £3870. To be added to this is the quantity cleared at the Grey, of which wo have no account-— with the exception of the 15,000 ozs. shipped from that port last week by the Otago. When we mention further that the Bruce brought .up from Okarita, yesterday, 02 13 ozs, and on her former trip 3222 ozs, wo get from these rough figures alone a sufficiently practical answer to the assertion that the published statements of lurge finds here are " false in thd extreme." No other gold-producing country in the same stage of development, and with the same population, has a similar story to tell. It is true that each outgoing steamer carries with it a considerable number of passengers. But, as a rule, of what class do these consist ? Partly of commercial men visiting tho neighboring colonies for business purposes ; but for the greater part, of successful miners, who carry with them tho very satisfactory fruits of their labors. So long as these results are obtained, we may be assured that no publications of false statements will materially affect that constant influx of population to Iho Westland goldfields, which is so all important to the continued and augmented development of its resources. Facts are stubborn things, and the knowledge of such facts as we have cited will spread wherever our returned diggers mingle with their associates, to tell the marvels of the rich fields from which they have reaped their harvest. ,'