NELSON.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume I, Issue 31, 15 August 1863, Page 6

NELSON.

REPORTED NEW GOLDFIELD. (From the Daily Times Correspondent.) Nelson, July 28. The subject of primary importance to this province and that which arouses most discussion at the present moment is the developement of our too long neglected goldfields. Seven years have now passed since gold was found in quantity at the Aorere Valley, yet here we are still debating about the means for opening up a goldfield. Gold has been found, as I have informed you in several of my letters, in very large nuggetty pieces. The Buller, Mamia, Jumgahua, and other districts, have yielded richly. Yet at this moment our Government stands as it did years since—irresolute, seeming to desire a developement of our mineral riches yet fearing to take other than most feeble steps for that end. Rumors we have had in plenty about the yield of gold obtained by prospectors, but as yet no goldfield has been proclaimed by our Government. I will detail to you the more prominent facts with regard to our gold prospects.

The steamer Sturt, which now plies regularly between this and the Buller, on her first trip took down some thirty diggers, but many of these returned with the steamer, tbey having simply visited .the district with a view to learning what prospects offered themselves when spring should set in. On her return the Sturt brought with her 650 ounces of gold from the Buller, and 120 from Collingwood, and at that time the " Nelson Examiner" said, " there was still known to be a very large quantity of gold in the hands of the diggers." The Sturt left here again yesterday, taking with her between 45 and 50 diggers. A very fine sample of gold, the produce of the Lyell district, near the Buller, was recently exhibited by one of our storekeepers, who had purchased it from, I believe, a prospecting party. Speaking of this gold, one of our Nelson papers said:—" In order that our readers may judge of the probability of very coarse gold being obtained in this portion of our goldfields, we would state that the quantity purchased was 470z lldwt, of which one piece weighs seven ounces, and several others three, four, and five ounces each. The gold is water worn, but is not impregnated with the least perceptible amount of foreign matter. A party recently returned

from the Buller district, also give a very promising account of the portion of that river in which they had been working, and to which they intend immediately returning." A new goldfield has just been discovered at the River Mangles, also in the Buller district, but of this there is very little known. The " Examiner" speaking of it, says:— " The new goldfield, of which we spoke in our last issue, is on the River Mangles, three or four miles above the the junction of that river with the Buller, and thirty miles below Lake Rotoiti. Over a pound weight of gold was obtained in a few hours by a prospecting party of four men, from the bed of the Mangles. The banks of the river, although not prospected, are believed to be likewise auriferous, and, as good prospects have also been obtained in the adjacent valleys, there can be little doubt but that the Buller and its tributaries will employ a large number of diggers in the ensuing spring and summer. The Mangles is eighty miles from Nelson, and there is a rough dray road nearly the whole distance."