THE UPPER INANGAHUA AND MURRAY CREEK.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 786, 31 January 1871, Page 2

THE UPPER INANGAHUA AND MURRAY CREEK.

January 17. The alluvial diggings on the Upper Inangahua, by which is meant that part of the river abore the junction of the right and left forks above Fern Flat, where the town of Kynnersley formerly stood, still support a limited population. A rush has recently taken place to a creek running into the Inangahua, about eight miles above Rosstown. The prospectors, Garvey and party, are making considerably more than good wages, and there are five or six other claims on gold. The stripping j at the upper end of the workings is shallow, and it is about 10ft deep at the lower end. The wash contains immense granite and schistose boulders, which require blasting to remove them, and there is a good deal of water in the lower claims. Tail-races are being taken up, and altogether the place is highly spoken of. Two stores are being erected in the vicinity, and several agricultural and residence areas have been applied for in the locality. Prospecting parties are out in all directions, but none of them have as yet found anything worth mentioning, or at least no discovery of any consequence has been made public. The old workings at Murray, Burkes, Liverpool Dave's and Rainy Creeks are deserted in consequence of the scarcity of water, to be re-occupied again when the rainy weather seta in. Soldier and Darkie Creeks give employment to about thirty miners, but they are not doing much, for the ground has been well fossicked. The township at Ross' Crossing has wonderfully improved and increased in size, and a ferry boat has been placed on the river by Mr Ross. The principal part of the town is on a flat near the foot of Liverpool Dave's Creek, and on the site which was occupied by Devery and Flanagan's stores some years ago. Another part is being built on the opposite, or Murray Creek side of the river. There are altogether six licensed houses, four stores, a billiard saloon, butchers, bakers, and shoemakers, with all the nondescript places which generally make up a township at a new rush, including of course the inevitable skittle alley, with its usual free and easy joint-stock proprietory, incorporated under that peculiar system of unlimited (loo) liability which makes everyone of the round dozen you see hanging ahout the place absolute " boss " without any responsibility, and everyone of whom are accomplished "beerbiters." A person whose business leads him to visit new rushes as they occur, cannot fail to observe the remarkable resemblance there is between the members of a certain class who are always first, or among the first, at the scene of every new discovery. They follow no business or occupation, they never dig or even pretend to do so, they are not share or scrip brokers, and they are not by any means " brokers " in another sense, for they always have money, they cannot be mining reporters, because they are not shabbylooking enough to belong to that unfortunate class of individuals, but whatever they are, they are always there to the good like a bad sixpence. They might be seen in full blossom at Nelson Creek, at Napoleon, at Paddy's Gully, and at Half-Ounce, during the rushes to those places, end now they are flowering luxuriantly at Reefton. Long may they bloom, and "gentle slumbers o'er them glide," for if they are useless they are at least ornamental. A good deal of dissatisfaction has been expressed by the inhabitants of Reefton, and the reefs, about the outrageously unreasonable distance people have had heretofore to travel to transact the most trivial business at the Warden's Office. The distance from the reefs to the junction of the Buller and the Inangahua, where the Court has been held, is very little short of 40 miles, over a most dangerous road when the rivers and creeks are up. It appears so absurd that a man would have to walk 80 miles to procure a miner's right or register a claim, that it would scarcely be believed in a civilisedcominunity, but such is the painful fact, as many poor fellows know to their cost. The Warden of the district is not to be blamed, or to be held responsible for this scandalous state of affairs. Ir, cannot be expected that any officer can attend to the multifarious duties appertaining to the offices of Warden and Magistrate at such an important commercial and mining district as Westport and the locality is, and properly attend to the wants of a large population 70 or 80 miles away, at the same time. The Provincial Executive are alone to blame in thus imposing an undue amount of labor and responsibility on any man's shoulders, and if the work cannot be performed to the satisfaction of the public, the Government should receive the odium. Mr Warden Giles held a Court at Christie's Accommodation House on Tuesday last, and he disposed of two or three important mining cases, and upwards of forty applications for water-rights, machine sites, protections, &c. On the following day Dr Giles visited Reefton, and next morning he proceeded to the reefs, in company with Mr Surveyor Lewis and others, and after examining the jumped claims, they started on an exploring expedition on foot, to find a short, cut to Williams' s Accommodation House, on Fern Flat. The result was that a good line for a track was found along a spur on the north eastern side of German Jack's Gully, to the left hand branch of the Inangahua, opposite Williams's farm, making the distance from Shiel's reef to Williams's under six miles, and it is nearly double that distance by the present track through the river bed. Mr Williams has offered to construct a good horse track from his place to the reefs, and to bridge or put a safe ferry On the river, for the right to charge tolls, or to take payment in full for his outlay in hand. The offer has not yet been accepted, but in the meantime the Warden has decided to hold a court at Williams's, thus coming twenty miles nearer the miners, which is in itself a great consideration. The Warden has since received a memorial, asking that he would hold a Court at Reefton, but the memorialists have not received an answer yet. The Inangahua River has never been so low, within any one's recollection, as it is at present, and as an instance, a cargo boat, which was built at Donald Ross's, was launched last week, but before she could be got to the Landing a channel had to be made for her as she came down. A description of a visit to

the diggings and country on the lower Inangahua, with an account of the Lyell and Buller gold fields, must be held over for a future letter.