MOONLIGHT CREEK.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 593, 4 November 1869, Page 3

MOONLIGHT CREEK.

<•- (from an occasional cobrespondent.) I October 31. Mining operations on this creek are j still progressing, as there has lately been a small rush to a tributary of the Caledonian, where a hatter had been working on a period of four months, and who had amassed several hundred pounds. As yet there has been but a few claims taken up, all of them paying from LlO to Ll2 per man weekly ; but as the ground is shallow and easily wrought, must of the claims will be worked out by the time this communication reaches town. Though this rush has been productive of good only to a few, it shows that this part has not received a fair share of prospecting. There are now three small gullies being worked in this locality which have escaped the prospectors' notice for the last four years. Caledonian Creek was rushed during the fall of '65, but being a very wetfseason it was soon left, owing to the counter attractions of Red Jacks, Nobles, &c., where payable gold could then be got much easier, since which time it has been, nearly deserted, but will now no doubt have a fair trial, as I believe there is as good Bmall wages ground to be found herd as in any part of the Grey district. In Murphy's Gully, lately rushed at Moonlight's, several claims are getting good gold in the banks. Maxwell and party obtained a 6£oz nugget lately and richly have they been repaid for their last three months' labor. All attempts to trace the gold into the hills have failed, as they are for the most part bare. One or two parties have been engaged I in prospecting about the Bald Range, some distance above the reefs, from which source Moonlight and Canoe Creek take their head. They report the country in this part to be the roughest they have yet seen in New Zealand, as also the existence of payable gold, if it were possible to pack provisions to this almost impassable line of country. The work of opening up the various quartz claims is being pushed forward with vigor, and everyone looks forward to a prosperous future for this hitherto neglected district.