THE GREY RIVER RUSH.

Evening Post, Issue 147, 28 July 1865, Page 2

THE GREY RIVER RUSH.

Indeed, the chief excitement seems to be about the new diggings on the river. Already there are fully 3000 men there* and from a private letter, dated 18th inst., we learn that on the previous day fully 500 persons passed Blake Town on their way to the diggings. The same letter states that the real diggings on the Grey are on the Nelson side of this river, which divides the two provinces of Nelson and Canterbury; and that a large quantity of the gold is found on that side. Indeed, it is stated that from the sudden and large influx of population, what with the gold duty, and the fees on miners' rights, were a gold-field proclaimed, a revenue of £10,000 might bd secured for the province of Nelson within three months. Sites for stores are being rapidly taken up; the banks have sent] agent*?" to the ground, and all repo#ts concur in saying that the Grey will speedily have a large and thriving population on its banks. The following is an extract from a letter written by Mr. John Rochfort, formerly of Nelson, and now in the service ot the Canterbury Government, at Hokitika, to a friend in Nelson. It is dated 19th July: — " There is a great rush to the Grey, some thousands of persons are there. To-day there is a report that a valley twelve miles long has been found, and that it is richer than any yet discovered in New Zealand. Of course, all due allowance must be made for exaggeration in proportion to the distance a way, still one solid proof is that numbers of business people have gone there to erect stores, and the managers of banks are securing sites also, indeed there is a regular scramble for sites. To-morrow I go there to formthem into order, by laying out a few streets. At first they will not go iuto the heavy bushland where I have laid out the town, but have occupied those parts more immediately available, such as beaches of the sea and river and low and scrubby ground, liable to floods which I did not consider worth laying out before. I cannot ascertain the exact locality of the rush, but I think it must be the Tau-ware-karito, the first small river above the Arnould. " It is qnite time your Government took some steps in the matter, for the Grey mouth will probably soon have a town as large as Hokitika ; and then you have the coal there too — another source of revenue.''