77

H.—9a.

that. Ido not think copper will trouble him. One store at Hokitika burst on that. If they do not risk the Government store here it will be all right. I hear that our local geologist, Mr. Wheeler, is engaged at Bs. per diem to collect the shale specimens. Gold would send him off altogether. He says gold-digging is the ruin of any new country ; and if any settler would be foolhardy enough to go prospecting he would likely find his hut, if he had one, turned into a stable on his return. Between coal, timber, kerosene shale, and such combustible matter laying about in such profusion, I think we are likely to have an explosion soon if it is not better managed. By the bye, Mr. Editor, can you inform ua if Mr. E. Barff has turned a Roman Catholic, as I see by the West Coast Times that it was the Irish Eoman Catholics, or Greeks, as he sometimes calls them, who returned the said Mr. Barff. lam afraid that the editor of the West Coast Times has got something on the brain since his non-election for Hokitika. If the poor fellow wanted to be returned so badly, why did he not come down and stand for this place, where his interest lies ? We wanted to see him, and would have returned him [back to Hokitika, I mean], with a new suit presented to him. There is some tar to be got, and feathers are plentiful here, so that it would not cost much. We do not forget the butter-and-jam settlers yet, nor other of his vile, scurrilous epithets launched at us through that low crawler for power. But I suppose he must obey his master like any other slave. I moan the masters who are reaping all the benefits from this settlement. It was a good spec, for some steamship-owners, making money out of us poor deluded wretches who were sent down here under false representations. Is there no law to punish wholesale swindlers ? I wish I were a German, as they can get constant work, which enables them to raise a cheque and by this means carry themselves away. Although they want £50 bonus and the land free to take any up, they are not such Fools as they are taken to be —not half so soft as the Britishers. I do not blame the Resident Agent for making a stable of Mr. Courtenay's hut, as he did not do as he promised when he built it. There was not as much dry ground on the ten-acre section as would give leave to build a 10 x 12 hut, so the Resident Agent gave him leave to build on the gravel reserve, but Courtenay was to sow the ten acres in rice, as he understood that sort of farming, he having been a good few years in the Mauritius. But when the Chinamen did not come down he thought it would be a bad spec, and he did not fulfil his part of the contract, so that lie deserved to lose his hut, after it costing him £20, and the swamp he paid £3 for—the first year's instalment. I met James Teer on the beach the other day. He looked very low on it. His tucker was stopped —that is, he was threatened by the Resident Agent with the law if he killed any seals before the close season was out, and you must know that seal has been his natural food fur some time, and the opposition of the new company's lishiug ; but he says he has another spec, in view if the Resident Agent would not interfere with him again. You know he started, with the fisherman, to shoot all the seals on the island, so that they would not have a chance ; but he only got ten, I believe. He means to take up five or six of the fifty-acre sections, and start an eel-fishery. He says it would not be expensive, as there are not more than ten or twelve feet of water on any of them ; but as there would be so many left, for opposition the Resident Agent might get up another company, and spoil that game too. But he says there is just water enough to float a small company. They could monopolize the lot before the Resident Agent would bo aware of it. But he has not made up his mind yet. I hope lam not intruding on your valuable time or space, and that if you do publish this letter you will not comment on it and try to make facts appear fiction. I have, &c, The Editor of the Evening Star, Hokitika. A Gbeek. Sir,— Jackson's Bay, Bth March, 187 G. Will you please allow space to insert the following in the columns of your paper: —Caution to diggers and prospectors, and all or any concerned in the development of the mineral resources of this delightful country. —Do not come to Jackson's Bay; more especially if you are a sober, steady, striving man ; losing your time, and working entirely upon your own resources, without any aid from Government whatever. If you should get stone-broke aud on the shelf in this jungle, any settler will give you a few meals or a shake-down. Though poor, there is benevolence, generosity, and hospitality existing amougst them to as great an extent as I have over seen existing in any colonial community. They are mostly the true grit. But the case is quite the reverse with Mr. D. Macfarlane, the Resident Agent, or any of his satellites that revolve around him in their own little circle. By these, a digger or any person that is seeking for gold, or any other person looking for metal of any description, is looked upon as an animal that ought nut to exist on the face of this earth. They will not condescend to speak to such a thing. If you get hard-up, you can perish. You will not be allowed to work, no matter how able and willing; but you can tramp 150 miles, to Hokitika, and bless yourself that you cannot pay the ferrymen on the road. A hard-up prospector is not allowed to work, though I believe there is plenty offered by the Government. There is no gold on these beaches as stated in the pamphlet. Mr. Editor, this place is a dead and total failure, and never can. be a success. There will be a pretty kettle of fish here when the Government stop the tucker; at the end of a few months people must starve. Let some person, not connected, overhaul this Government store and books, &c, and you will see what you shall see. I subscribe myself, A RoAE FROM THE JUNGLE—PbOSPECTOE. The Editor of the Tlvening Star, Hokitika. Sic, — Jackson's Bay, 9th March, 1876. If you can afford space in your columns within a short time from this date, will you kindly publish my treatment as a settler or digger on and near this settlement of Jackson's Bay ? I came down here by the " Waipara " the second time she brought settlers, as a settler. I was asked by the Superintendent, in the presence of the Provincial Secretary, both of this province, if I had any means. I replied, Yes, and that I intended to prospect the country in search of alluvial gold and quartz reefs. The pamphlet published regarding this place plainly states that the settlers can leave off work and make a few pounds on the beaches, allowing the settlers to go digging if they choose. Now, the gold on these beaches, according to my experience of twenty-three years' standing in these colonies, with