STAFFORD HILL RUSH.

West Coast Times, Issue 277, 13 August 1866, Page 2 (Supplement)

STAFFORD HILL RUSH.

The rush to which the above name is given is situated in the Waimea district, about one mile NE. from Stafford Town, on the Waimea track. Excepting the last mfle, there is a good road to it all the way from Hokitika. The best and nearest route is to follow the beach aa far as the Auckland, or Eight-Mile, township, and then turn off upon the Waimea track, which is corduroyed-and partly metalled. Following this for three miles, Stafford Town is reached, where the traveller must turn short to the left, and by following a track, the condition of which strongly savours of the Waimea as it was sixteejf months ago, the rush will be reached in three-quarters of a mile or a mile. Stafford Hill is a very peculiar eminence, aa it rises abruptly out of the flat, and on its north-east and east sides is nearly perpendicular. In fact, there are many places quite inaccessible, as the face falls Bheer down for a hundred feet and more. On' its south-west 1 side, the rise is more gradual, although steep enough — and it ,waß here, in a blind gully running from the hul, that gold was first struck some three months ago by Lewis and party (the prospectors), who gradually traced it into the hill by tunnelling, and finally sunk a shaft upon the sununit of the brow, bottomed at sixty feet, and were rewarded with a prospect of ldwt. to the dish, out of a vein of granite and sandstone gravel, from eight inches to one foot in thickness. The wash-dirt lays upon a soft mullocky sandstone, dipping to the westward. The sinking is through a heaw bed of granite, sandstone, and slate wasli, free from water save a very slight drainage ; but on the western side of the terrace, where the ground is deeper, the water is more abundant. Next to the prospectors', but more to the west, Peel and party have bottomed at seventy-one feet t - with a foot of wash dirt, that yields from 4grs.to6grs to the dish. Andrew Londhal and party, who occupy the second claim N.B. from the prospectors', have also struck gold at fifty-five feet, the prospects they obtained ranging from Jdwt. to ldwt. the dish. Nearly at right angles to this claim, on the eastern side of the terrace, Joe the Italian and his mates, after sinking eight feet through a very pretty wash, struck a heavy bed of clay, through which they are still sinking, believing there is another wash underneath. One or two other shafts have also struck the same clay bed, which many believe is the main bottom. On the north-west side 2, the hill, some sixty or seventy feet from its 'summit, a party of miners drove in a tunnel, and struck washdirt that yielded ldwt to the dish. The vein is about one foot thick. On each aide of this tunnel another is being driven { that to the 'west by Hamilton and party, who have not yet struck gold, and a party of Germans, who', so far, are equally unsuccessful, are .taking in the other. Above about eighty yards from the brow, Williams and party have bottomed at forty feet, but affirm the hole is a "duffer." Apparently, however, they have faith in the ground, as a very substantial hut they are building attests.

Uncertain Property. — Some years ago, two gentlemen in one of the Southern States- owned a slave together. He was a valuable servant, a smart, industrious, and withal a genuine darkey. One of the owners, becoming straightened in his circumstances, was obliged to sell his share in Tom. And after some attempt to sell him. Tom t made a bid on his own hook, and the auctioneer knocked him off, (or rather half of him) to himself. Tom, evidently very well satisfied with his bargain, stepped down from the auction block, when one of the by-standers accosted bini : ' Tom, what did you buy half of yourself for ? the other half belongs to somebody else, and you will be just as much a slave as ever.' — 'Oh,' says Tom, with a grin, 'pretty good nigger — I thought I would have an interest in him !' — But a short time after as Tom was sailing in a dory, the boat capsized -and sunk, leaving him in a very critical condition. Being a strong fellow, he struck out for the shore a long distance off, and after a hard struggle reached it almost exhausted. He had scarcely gained a foothold, when he met the same person who had questioned him at the sale. The first salutation was : — ' Come, Tom, now tell me how you came to bid off half of yourself the other day?' — 'Well,' says Tom, * I have just been thinking while I was out there in the river, whas a fool I was, to lay out my money on §uch uncertain property a* nigger*.'