THE WEST COAST.

Evening Post, Issue 188, 14 September 1865, Page 2

THE WEST COAST.

The Correspondent of the Nelson Examiner writes under date : — Hokitika, 30th August. The news of the past week is perhaps the most exciting that we have received since the soil of the West Coast was broken by the first pick and shovel. A few days since an enormous quantity of gold and quicksilver amalgamated, amounting iv weight to 116 lbs., was brought into Hokitika by three men. They carried their treasure to a jeweller here, Mr. Proctor, who retorted it, returning the owners over one hundredweight of pure gold in ingots, which have since been disposed o to the Bank of New South Wales. The men returned soon after the sale of their gold, without either telling anyone of the whereabouts of their claim, or acquainting us how long it had taken them to amass so large an amount. There are not many parts of the goldfield which have been found to yield gold so fine as to require the use of quicksilver to secure it from

» i loss, but it is very possible that the spot is not far distant from Hokitika, 'and near the shore. I have however, seen gold as fine as sand, which came from a spot about twenty miles inland. Without wishing to depreciate the value of this splendid find, there is no doubt it would be far more satisfactory if we knew the time that was spent in obtaining it : one says six weeks, another three months, another four. If the party of miners have chosen to retain their gold in their possession during six mouths, the find is really no more wonderful than several other instances I could cite ; as, for example, Hawke's river claim on the Kaneiri, which yield £90 a week per man, with a years wash-dirt having been partially made use of by another party, who had no idea of the riches underneath, and consequently h wing amassed a large sum, did not care about sinking deeper. The diggings on this last mentioned river are decidedly the most extensive, if not the richest, that are being worked on the coast. The Grey has recently occupied a very great share of interest here, and has excited the jealousy of many of the mercantile community of Hokitika, who have been rather anxious as to the result of the rush thither. The news brought to us day by day ia certainly of a nature to attract any who are at poor claims, or arc out of work. The latest rush which we have heard of here is up the Arnold, a tributary of the Grey, on the Canterbury side. The prospectors are Maoris, and the amount obtained in one afternoon, wi'h a tindish, was 4 ounces. My information was from a most reliable source. The Maoris, one and all, left for the spot — even an old decrepit chief, I hear, accompanied them, and they hare been followed by a large number of diggers. The town at the Grey is increasing rapidly in size I hear, and every kind of business is unusually brisk.