The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 225, 21 April 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1868.

For many years has the prosperity of the Buffer District been the theme of prophecy. L'ke the tides which ebb and (low upon our coast, rush after rush has disturbed the quietness now effectually and for ever broken. The position occupied by Westport, and indeed more or less by the various scattered and distant communities from which the means of support flow iato this tiny capital, is yet anomalous. The population of the Nelson South West Groldfields is large and wealthy. Weeded as they have been by the late disastrous rush to Queensland, these Northern mines retain thousands of- industrious men, whose claims are much too rich to be abandoned. Gold is now obtained in quantities somewhat proportioned to the means used for its production. The banks make no secret of the fact, that they are purchasing larger parcels of that metal than have hitherto been offered. One or two places have been over praised and over rushed, but the large centres of population—Charleston, Addison's, Brighton, the Caledonian Lead, and district, are in a state of unexampled activity, and are yielding as much if not more gold than the whole • of the West Coast beside. And yet things are for the present in a depressed and gloomy condition. For a lonoperiod the merchants and storekeepers have been called upon to supply the multitudes of those who have opened the different fields. And not merely to supply, but to supply almost gratuitously, the wants of a perfect army. Of course the purveyors to the public wants were to be paid. But the payment never came. From Mokihinui, from Waite's Pakihis, and a score of other places, the gold was always to come, hitherto the expectations respecting it have never been realised. And, now that the day has dawned, now that the water of Waite's has been, to use a strong expression "slated," and that the systematic and determined labor of some thousands of miners has be<nin to bear its legitimate fruits we fear that many of those through whose liberality and patience all difficulties have been overcome are no longer in a position to reap the harvest of their toil. To many of our most respected citizens, the want of a large capital has been a fatal blow. In older communities they would have turned their money over and over again in the same space of time, although their profits would have been small. We will, however, hope that for them the darkest hour which precedes the dawn has well nigh passed, and that they, as well as others, will share in the changing circumstances of this part of Westland. It is a long lane that has no turning, and it needs no second sight to perceive that the long-expected prosperity of this town and district is close at hand. The yield of gold is rapidly increasing. Capital is being freely expended in reproductive works. On every goldfield within thirty miles of Westport, machinery almost perfect is rapidly superseding the old and imperfect system of labor ; new regions, highly auriferous, are being discovered, and most probably, before six months have passed, thousands of those who foolishly left the West Coast for Queensland will return to labor more patiently amongst us. We do not care to argue with the croakers who sigh over the days of trouble in store for us. We see and understand somewhat the signs of the times, and consider that better times are dawnin°-; we will hazard the statement that ere twelve months have passed Westport will be the centre of some of the busiest and wealthiest communities in New Zealand.