LATEST FROM THE WEST COAST GOLD FIELDS.

Evening Post, Issue 116, 23 June 1865, Page 2

LATEST FROM THE WEST COAST GOLD FIELDS.

NEW RUSH TO THE GREY RIVER. ARRIVAL OF 8500 OUNCES FROM HOKITIKA. MORE VESSELS ASHORE. SILTING UP OF THE GREY AND HOKITIKA. BARS. (from the nelson colonist, 20tii june ) Since our last publication there have been two arrivals from the Hokitika — the Favourite, which came into port on Friday, and the Wallaby, which reached here on Saturday about midnight. The Favourite brought 2000 ounces of gold, and the Wallaby 6500, for the different banks. The latest intelligence is that a traveller from the Grey river arrived at Hokitika on Tuesday last, with the news of a new rush having taken place to a spot several miles beyond the old diggings on that river, which, it will be remembered, were situated a few miles above the coal mine. The precise locality, our correspondent says, "is not known, but from what I can learn it will not long be a secret, as the report here is that from 250 to 300 men had gone up the river, many taking provisions with them from the township. This demand appears to have pretty well

cleared out the storekeepers at the Grey, and provisions of all kinds weie very scarce ; flour, it is said, being barely a week's supply, bo that prices there have risen extremely." The difficulty will be to know how to supply stores to the Grey, for what with the stranding and loss of so many steamers, the withdrawal of others, and the lupse of a fortnight which must tike place before the Wallaby is overhauled and ready for the trade again, it will require nearly all the available steam fleet to meet the wants of Hokitika itself. Sailing c r aft appear to be unfit for the service, more especially with the growing obstructions to taking the bar. The entrance has recently had much silt deposited, and the sand bank is so given to shifting that sailing craft lose a great deal of time in waiting for a favourable opportunity to take the bir, and even the best opportunity is bad enough for a sailing vessel, unassisted by a tu#. There are about two hundred yards of broken water to go through, and at times the breakers here are very powerful, as may be concluded when it is narrated that one sea which struck the Wallaby, after she touched the bar, smashed the starboard boat to pieces, leaving only the stem and sternpost hanging to the davit falls. We have the following from a correspondent at the Hokitika: — "On Saturday last, I saw what is popularly called Five Mile diggings. The operations, which are but commencing, give evidence of the confidence the digger has iv the ultimate success of his undertaking. There are numbers of holes sunk to the depth of ten, twenty, and forty feet, and then the ground beneath is excavated. On some of these claims there are said to be several ' bottoms,' or deposits of gold at different, depths. Most of them, who have claims ( make what in digger's parlance is styied wages. The operation of washing is in nearly all cases performed by means of the cradle. A township is springing up on*the bank of the river in juxtaposition to the digger's claims. " Within the present week two small schooners have stranded near the entrance o f the harbour, and will probably be broken up. There are eight or nine vessels outride, and which have been warily watching an opportunity to make the harbour for a week or more. Steamers alone, and those of light draft and of great power, are suited for the West Coast trade. 11 The other evening, I began to enumerate the number of public houses, hotels, &c, in Hokitika, where liquors are sold, but I failed in counting them all ; but still I made out as many as fifty in one street. This street, the mdn business Btreet, has a brilliant appearance from the number of lights on each side suspended in front of the public-houses. " On Sundays, Mr. O. Powell preaches in a large building called the • Corinthian Hall,' where* Thatcher, ' the rough rhymer, performs nightly during the rest of the week to crowded audiences ; and the latter performance with its slang, and its attacks upon the Government authorities.attacks very easy to make, appear more attractive and more in accordance with the general taste than Mr. Powell's ministrations, earnest and sincere though these undoubtedly arc."