OKITIKI GOLD FIELDS.

Evening Post, Issue 22, 4 March 1865, Page 2

OKITIKI GOLD FIELDS.

In the Nelson papers we have later intelligence from the Okitiki gold fields. Tho Examiner of the 2nd inst., says :— " A veritable rush to the West Coast gold field is now going forward, and the means afforded by two small steamers, the Nelson and Wallaby, are quite inadequate to convey the persons in Nelson who are seeking passages to Okitiki and the' Grey, as well as to supply the increasing wants of the diggers there with the first necessaries of life. 11 1 rom accounts which reach us from various quarters, we believe the West Coast ot the Canterbury province will form as large and as Attractive a gold field as any which has been worked in Otago ; and from intelligence received in town yesterday, we find that prospects almost equally good have been found on the north side of the Grey, in the province of Nelson. " So little preparation has yet been made to receive or sustain a large population on the West Coast, that we have been averse to publishing the glowing accounts of success which have from time to time been conveyed to us ; at the moment we write, there is not a week's supply of flour at Okitiki while population is pouring in both by sea and laud, and consumers are augmenting in an increasing ratio. Vhcn also the district is without law or au« thority, the Government of Canterbury most siugulaily neglecting its duty. " The quantity of gold brought up by the steamers this week is about 1,500 ounces, but this very inadequately represents the gold obtained, as the population on these digging! now considerably exceeds 2,000 ; and every one is doing so well, that 30s a day has to be offered by the public crier as wages for a laboring mnn, by persons who need work to be done. Whatever Buccess may ultimataly ati end these diggings, we hope at all events to hear before long that all has been done for the diggers at work there which justice and policy require." A correspondent of the same journal writes from Okitiki on the 28th ult t — There is now, I am positively informed, not enough flour and other necessary provisions at the Okitiki, for one week's consumption. You mentioned recently the wreck of the Nugget at the Grey. That vessel left the Grey for tho purpose of proceeding to Nelson for a cargo of fbur, and whan about ten miles out she sank. The Nugget had for a long time been King in the sun, and her beams were opened. The two men who were in her took to the dingy, and attempted to reach the Grey, but the boat capsized on the bar, ami one man was drowned ; his name was Cooper. The other saved himself by clinging to an oar. Mr. Waite fpund the body of the drowned man and buried it. 'A Some Maoris going overland front thejl Bullet saw a mutilated body lyinjf on th«l|f

t their path. It had on a pair of trousers, has taken place to the Nelson side ty, and good goM is beini? obtained Imnn, rin.'iur through the street of I offering 303 a-day for a laboring