THE WOODSTOCK RUSH.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2504, 17 April 1882, Page 3

THE WOODSTOCK RUSH.

So much having been said and written about the Woodstock rush, a number of experienced miners in this (Greymoutb) district have from time to time during the progress of the rush visited the lccility in order to judge for themselves. We learn from them—and there is a remarkable similarity in all the reports—that striotly speaking the ground is a very good instance of whet is known as a "poor man's diggings " —not in the sense of keeping him poor, but as a place where almost every man may expect to make a living, if rot wages, by a reasonable expenditure of labor ; and of course with the ohance of ooming across ground that may pay him £ per day, Beyond this there is no reason to suppose that any of the claims will go. About fourteen only are at present bottomed, and most of these struok gold on bottoming. Some of them did not strike the auriferous wash until they had driven some distance ; bub none obtained more than a few grains to tho dish, with one notable exception, where the wash is calculated to yield £cz. to tho load. The usual thickness of the bed of auriferous drift is between three and four feet, though in some of tho olaims that appear to have struck the very edge of the lead, the gravel is but a few inches thick. No accurate idea as to the width of the lead appeared to have yet been formed. Some are of opinion, however, that there are two narrow runs of gold running parallel, with breaks and barren plaoes along the line. A favorable feature in the character of the wash dirt is the absence of large boulders, which, vrheu present, greatly reduce the quantity of wash. Close on 300 men are on tha spot, holding ground, but a great deal th.it has been tak'n up and pegged off is under-mar,ned, being, in fact, merely shepherded. Ao the ooaches from Hokitika aDd Ross take pas sengors to and fro very cheaply, many of the miners having mude arrangements to pay so much per week, numbers working on the ground still at Ross or Hokitika. The rush is on a piece of table land far above the level of the river, with a small riae on each side, the sinking being between 50ft. and 60ft. The direction of the lead is east and west, or the same as the course of the stream. The carrying capacity of the ground seems to bs nearly exhausted, but as there is another strip of country similar in character and on the same " lie," as it is called, a rush of very imposing proportions may be looked for should gold be struck there, as it is anticipated will be the case. Places of business are springing up rapidly, and it is feared that that feature of the rush is being overdone The labor market is considerably affected by the rush, as hands for general work are very scarce. On the whole the moral to bo deduced from the nature of the rush is, that those who cannot obtain remunerative employment and feel themselves equal to the work required of them, might do worse than try the Woodstock rubh ; but any person ia reoeipt of ordinary and permanent wages would be acting very unwisely in leaving hiß oooupation in the hope of getting a pile. The ground in evidently not of the sort out of whioh piles are obtained, and it should be remembered that after all Woodstock is only a rush, not a new goldfield.—" Grey River Argus."