SUPPOSED NEW GOLD FIELD.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 639, 22 February 1870, Page 3

SUPPOSED NEW GOLD FIELD.

fCKOMWEtL GUARDIAN.] A roadside correspondent writes : — At Lake Wanaka there is a river — the Motatnpu—respecting which but little is known beyond the fact that it empties itself into the Wanaka, midway between the top and bottom of the Lake. It is also known to be auriferous, bnt to what extent has not yet been ascertained. Somehow or other it has never come properly under the operations of the long-handled shovel. A few parties have from time to time been at work upon it, but these were either shepherds or shearers filling up their leisure hours, so that the place has never been wrought by practical experience, or even systematically. Of late it has been made mention of \n your columns as a ppot meriting the attention of the digger, and the particulars of a reported expedition were also furnished a few weeks ago. From what I have heard that expedition was delayed, and, although not abandoned, it has not yet taken place. About the New Year time a digger made his appear?mce in town and sold a package of gold to the bank, which attracted notice, but the seller was acute enough to keep his own counsel, and disappeared as mystc* riously as he had come. The fact was noted at the time, and an opinion expressed that be was a Motatupu digger, and since then two or three parties in the neighborhood have made up their minds %o visit the place before lpng. 1 One night }ast week, your correspondent, en route from Bendigo Gully, met in with a genuine type of the gold fields- prospector, and although communicative on every pther point, he seemed reluctant to say anything about what he was doing beyond that he was at work on the Motatupu. Subsequently we were joined ' by a pountryman of his own, and he became a little more communicative. In the back parlor of one of the local hostelries, and after a good deal of mysterious fumbling about the bottom of a chamois leather bag, he produced for inspection three of the finest nuggets I have seen in the Proymce. They were all well water-worn, and one of them could not have weighed less than ten or twelve dwts. The size and contents of the bag were carefully concealed, although so far as we could judge from a side glance, it was a pretty good " take." Qn being further interrogated, our rather- reticent companion deposed tq the following effect :- For sometime preceding seven weeks ago,, he had been at work at Jackson's Bay, on the West. Coast. He had been making fair wages, although not prepared to state the exact amount. The population of Jackson's Bay at that time was, thirty, Vrho were making on an average L 3 per week, working the beaches. There were a few families amongst the number and those who were married were reported to be perfectly content, but the unmarried part of the population were disposed to ramble about. One of narrator's mates ■was an " out-and-outer," who could scent a good patch and say nothing about it. In short, he was looked upon as a man worth being watched, and a sharp lookput was kept upon the movements of the whole party. They managed, however, to slip off without being observed, and as one of the number had been on the Motatupu before, it was resolved to shape their course thither. After six days incessant travelling, the summit level of the dividing range was attained, and in two days more they descended upon the Motatupu, near its junction with the Manatuku. The route, so far as I could judge, •was more to the south than that followed by Mr Pyke in his memorable journey overland from Wanaka to the West Coast. It was described as a very laborious track; passing through some heavy timbered country. The summit level appears more to resemble table land than that of Martin's Bay and Greenstone River. The soil is of a boggy nature, good for fuel. Our informant then appears to have shaped his course up the Motatupu, and after propecting set in to work a terrace, said to be about twenty miles from the mouth. The stripping is shallow, aad we are assured, ou the solemn testimony of a prospector evidently determined to keep the ground to himself, that it was worth little more than tucker. We do not mean to imply that he did not tell the truth, but so far as we are a judge of the science of inter-communication between the species, we certainly bo not believe he told the whole truth. : The banker with whom the contents of the chamois leather bag were deposited has been "equally discreet, so that our information : for the present is that the Motatupu is not worth more than tucker, although that does not limit our opinion.