THE WEST COAST COUNTRY.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume II, Issue 88, 2 March 1864, Page 4

THE WEST COAST COUNTRY.

The public have from time to time been informed and kept in a state of anxiety regarding the West Coast district, both as regards a prospect of an agricultural settlement being formed and a newgoldfields district established. At Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, the subject has been a prominent one, and at the former of these places a company was engaged for the purpose of testing the practicability of establishing a nearer and closer connection with the Lake goldfields than those via Dunedin and Invercargill. It is the duty of the journalist to give both sides of the question, and we are now in a position to give the other side Our information has been gleaned from an authority on whom we have every reliance, and one, who has fortunately escaped the wreck of the schooner « Pryde" on the West Coast, chartered by the Otago Government to convey provisions to a party of surveyors whom the Government had despatched to lay off a township on the pseudo-discovered country referred to in Dr. Hector's report. It appears that for all the purposes of settlement the country is valueless, and the most remote traces of auriferous character are wanting in the whole traverse of country from the mouth of the Kaduku Kiver to Mr

Von Tunzleman's station, near the Greenstone River. Our informant further says the whole valley of the Kaduku river possesses no land sufficiently valuable to induce settlement, being a series of flats, formed in the course of ages, from the shingly washings of the mountains. The isolated position even of any cultivable land, hemmed in, as the valley of the Kaduka is, by lofty mountains, is alone sufficient to prove the inutility of expending public money in an essay to develope a worthless tract of country, not calculated to support a rural population, and its agricultural industries in townships for the supply of any such problematical population. The staff now employed laying out townships is a clear sacrifice of the public money, and a gross mistake. The port of entry from the coast, even if this district should hereafter prove of any real value, is most hazardous, in consequence of a dangerous bar, and the breakers that generally prevail on it. The winds are also most baffling, and change suddenly from almost a squall into a calm; this is better shown by the loss of the ill-fated Pryde, schooner. For a whole fortnight the schooner lay off and on before she could get a chance of attempting the bar, the vessel was unfortunately wrecked on her return passage after her mission had been executed, and her loss was entirely owing to the inhospitality of the shore, and not, as will be seen, from any want of judgment in any of the parties concerned. Just as the schooner on her return neared the bar the wind that had prevailed died away, and despite the efforts of " sweeps," pulled as powerfully as possible—in the face of shipwreck and its concomitant danger —the vessel struck a sunken rock. This did not, however, render the vessel unseaworthy, and had the crew been able to get enough head* way on, all would have been well. The current, and the ebb caused by the breakers put her, however, into difficulties, and upon the snapping of the rudder chains, caused by these breakers the schooner became at once unmanageable and drifted slowly but surely upon the more visible and dangerous rocks. One of these she soon struck, and immediately commenced to fill. A part of the crew, unable to swim, rushed into the dingy and nearly caused it to upset by overcrowding; others who were able to swim did so, and though the escape was very narrow, all reached a resting-place, though thoroughly exhausted. No lives were lost, for which we have to thank a most merciful Providence. Amongst those of the crew who especially distinguished themselves were Mr Sullivan, late of Dr. Hector's party, and Mr Drumice, and the last was a universal favorite of the party. The former dived into the cabin and saved his diary of five months. From this place they walked overland to Messrs. Von Tunzleman's station, and from thence to Queenstown. The party have endured great hardships, being without any adequate sup* ply of clothing or provisions; and have lost all they had with them. Mr Sullivan only barely succeeded in rescuing his narrative of five months' exploration and its vicissitudes. Such is the condensed account that we have obtained, but we hope soon to be able to give further particulars.