A TOWN "RUSH."

West Coast Times, Issue 233, 18 June 1866, Page 2 (Supplement)

A TOWN " RUSH."

We quote from the "Despatch" of Saturday the following account of an amusing scene in Revell-street : — This morning extraordinary rumours were cur-reut in town to the effect that heavy gold had been discovered at the back of the Hospital, and that there was overy probability that the whole surveyed township would turn out auriferous. It It was stated that women -and children were picking up gold in handfuls, and that a richer patch had not been struck on any We?tland beach. Such intelligence caused our finger ends to tingle, and made ua long to grasp the pick and shovel and discard the v grey goose quill" for a time; so, quite unable 'to restrain ourselves, we rushed off to the scene of operations, hoping that if we were too late for the rush there might yet be time to secure a little bi. of " spare." The old hospital was quickly reached, but not a digger waß to be seen in the vicinity, , which induced the belief that the rumour was one of those delusions which periodically afflict the good folk of Hokitika. On emerging once more into Revell street, however, we observed a crowd , collected towards its upper end, and on reaching it we were astonished to see a miscellaneous collection of men, women aud children, busily scraping up the sand and carrying it away. The scene was a novel one certainly, and, Joatching the contagion we were about throwing ourselves on hands and knees to join in the general scramble when an acquaintance touched us on the shoulder and from him we gleaned the following particulars of the latest rush in Westland. It appears that some packers were leaving town last night for some of the northern beaches, when one of the horses in kicking up the sand, unearthed a number of glittering specks which upon exanimination proved to be gold dust, a closer inspection revealed a quantity of the metal which of course was carefully collected, and it is said amounted to no less than 40 ozs. Early this morning this lucky find became known, and resulted in the scene then being enacted in front of the Princo of Wales Hotel. At first we could hardly credit the fact ; but on proceeding to the back of the houses — where at some water holes many were washing out the sand, we saw such results as convinced U9 there was no exaggeration, but that gold was being obtained in considerable quantities. We heard one party near say that he had collected 5 ozs during the morning, andin another man's dish we saw quite 3 ozs of the precious metal. Many were the pfospecta washed, varying from a few grains to two and , three pennyweights ; but the richest eand had been collected into little heaps before our arrival, and theire lay to be washed at leisure, after the rush had subsided. How this gold was originally deposited,, may to some appear unaccountable; but we feel assured that the mystery of the lost bag of Waimea gold is at last cleared up. It will be remembered that some three months ago a bag of gold which contained 230 ozs, belonging to the Unioii Bank, was drppped while under escort on its way down to town and although the Waimea track was closely searched by the police from end to end, not a trace of the missing treasure could.be discovered. It has, however, undoubtedly turned up at last, as the gold found in Revell-street is pronounced by competent judges to be of precisely the same quality a 9 that of the Waimea« There is no mistaking it for beach gold, as it is infinately coarser than any ever found so close to high water-mark, and as it was found right on the beaten track in the surface sand there is no other way of accounting for its presence than tho above. Of course, it will be next to impossible to ascertain the amount collected in Revellstreet, but we are inclined to imagine that the lost bag must have dropped there and been crushed into the sand by passing horses and vehicles, and afterwards burst open and the contents scattered. If it is true that 40 ounces were found iv one patch last night, the chances are, that a portion of the bag lay not far from it. Although the treasure is thus discovered, we fear that the Union Bank will be unable to recover as identification on oath would be impossible.