WAYSIDE NOTES.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2677, 15 September 1871, Page 2

WAYSIDE NOTES.

(By our Special Reporter out for a Holiday.)

Orepuki contains Mr Hairst's, the pioneer and settler’s house and premises; the Warden’s residence, a public-house, a store, and nothing more. I was told there was another township two miles further on, containing two houses—six houses in two goldfields’ townships, quoth I to myself, that looks anything but flourishing—and then the good people wanted to know where I came from, where I was going, and what my business was. So I told them what a beastly trip you had sent mo, and cursed you, and then the road, and then all Governments, and d—d the Southland Government in particular; whence —I suppose to allay my irritation—the whiskey bottle was produced, and I gleaned the following information, which I shall afford independent of ray own observations. The goldfield was discovered in 1805. In the year following, when the beach was being worked, some 350 miners were on the field; in 1868 they had dwindled down to 40 ; while at the present time about 100 men and 70 women and children arc located on the ground. The gold was first found in a gully some two miles from the sea shore, and partially worked out. Then the beach-workings were found, and paying better, were worked and left ; many miners going away, some remaining to bring in water and work terraces and creeks in the bush. The men as a rule were doing well—there was a large extent of auriferous country ; water was

short, and there was no show for strangers. No reporter had been near them for over three years. Sometimes they ran out of provisions when the boat could not land, and the holder of a bag of flour had to divide with those who had none ; there was no horse or dray road to reach them ; the Government had expended .about L3OO only in cutting them a track, which they maintained themselves after a fashion; they had a warden to settle their disputes at the magninifleent salary of LIOO a year; they were the world forgetting, and by the world forgot. This I learned in a few minutes conversation, and started away to the upper township, around which most of the claims arc situated. On my way up I met our old friend Dr Carr, of whom more anon.

Walking along the sandy beach, you have on your shore side a terrace some sixty feet high, c imposed of friable sandstone, with worthless lignite beds cropping ont at intervals. They vary in thickness from two to ten feet. Above the sandstone, a bed of auriferous drift is found, varying in thickness and value. '1 he surface of the terrace is composed of first-class laud, covered with flax and fern, comprising in the open, some 5000 acres of such agricultural land as you would scarcely expect to have found. From the township to the Waiau, a distance of ten miles along the sandy beach, the shore line is in the form of a quadrant, the low hills surrounding the plain following the contour of the beach. To those not committed to any geologic theory it would appear as though the coast line had gradually encroached on the sea by upheaval, and that the terraces now covered with bush were once the beach, where the action of the waves had deposited the gold now being worked. The gold is as fine on the terraces as that on the beach ; black sand equally abundant, while the wash, or drift, containing shells and trunks of trees, presents the appearance ■ f beach, and not river wash—and induce the belief of marine origin at no very remote period. Several creeks on"tlps open terrace : been worked whe-e the rock has been worn away by the action of the water from the hills, and the rush of the tide along the depression so caused, reasserting and enriching the alluvial drift worn aw->y by such action—forming, in fact, natural ground sluices. Most of these workings have paid steady wages of L 3 or L 4 per week per man ; but the extent of auriferous ground on this open terrace is, as yet unknown—and other water courses, now silted up, will most probably be fouud. | may remark, en passant , tliatthis open terrace should becare'fully conserved. Many covet its possession uqdef the Agricultural Lease Ordinance, and some would be too glad to pay a high hard cashpriceto obtain its fee simple. Considering that Orepuki will some day maintain a large population, and that this is the only open pie e of countryadjacent of any value—for Sutton’s run is nearly all swamp—its being retained as commonage, or something analogous, seems imperative. The new Mining Bill may perhaps set this question at rest. Walking along the beach some miles from the township,'you come to a steep bluff, against which the sea surges sorely, called Kaitangata. Here some 130 Maories, returning overland from the Waiau, were caught by the tide. Thirteen only reached their home. J suppose they meant that the bluff should he known as the man-eater. Passing the bluff some 80 chains, you come to the main creek of Orepuki, called the Tauuoa, following which you amve ! at the upper township—Howell’s store and Calaglian’s new hotel. Before describing tjie workings in the bush, the workiugs on tho' demand attention. The terrace is flat even to the hill siiies ; there is little fall for ground sluicing, good ground cannot be worked in consequence, and sludge and tailings run all over the country. To obviata these evils a party of six men have been engaged twelve months cutting up a sludge channel—in some pla. es 30 feet deep—a distance nearly two miles in length. They have about 1200 yards still unfinished. By this enterprising conduct, a large extent of auriferous grouhd will be thrown' op.;n, a number of men will find additional employment:, and the prosperity of the place be greatly improved. Even in this' case, however pleasing it may Ic.ok, there is a drawback, and iu this wise. The Wai •

den owns 50 acres of freehold land facing the head of the sludge channel—through a portion of which land the best of the gold will undoubtedly run. At the foot of the creeks running into the Taunoa, a kind of basin is found—deep ground that has been prospected and found to be rich and wet, which the sludge channel drains. Now this basin and auriferous ground is included in the M arden’s fifty acre block. ’Tis awkward for the men mining there, awkward for the prosperity of the place, and awkward for 1 10 owner himself. It is only justice to the. Warden to state that ho bought it when alienated from the Grown, and is m no wise connected with its alienation. An acquain - ance conferred with me on the propriety offering him L 5 per acre for it. ‘No. I said, “wait and see the New Alining Bill, and ascertain what power it confers to enter and mine on private property first ” . , Adjoining the sludge channel, Oume and Cambell's claim is situated. They have been two years bringing up their tail race, and have washinc eight or nine months only, during which period they have been flooded out once with the Taunoa, and had many other disasters. They told me, however, the ground payed them well. They have done a small amount of work only while washing, and are not in thetleep ground yet. Still, when I visited their claim, in company with Mr Patrick Fitzgerald, they washed me out a prospect from the top of their wash. 1 observed that they had from a grain to a grain audja-half on a shovel, all fine gold. This was the best prospect I saw on the ground, however-which was shallow, easily stripped and worked. They have a lease of four acres. Near the first township, Smart and party are bringing up another sludge channel, at which they have been also at work for twelve months, and have only accomplished as yet a moiety of their work. Fitzgerald’s party have been working on the terrace for several j ears—have washed away many acres of ground, with various success, and, though getting nothing at present, still keep washing. A party of three working close to the lower township, three Chinamen on the beach, and one European, comprise the working population on the terrace, with those abovenamed.