THE WAKAMARINA DIGGINGS.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 164, 20 March 1869, Page 5

THE WAKAMARINA DIGGINGS.

WB • deceived -the • following telegram from our own correspondent on'Monday last :■ — - . ■- :• v i ' i< V “Havelock, March 15. Only a few-claims at the lower end of <> Mountain Gamp < Creek are getting : gold New terraces : are opening! on the Wakamarina.; ’There are ’ many I arriyals,.while many continue to leave, j Several parties (getting gold).on quiet: -’There are about 500 diggers on the ground.” ''■> i T\ie*Col<rnist says:£-Wb are 1 informed ,1. that .the overland road, (between Nelson- and - Wakamarina is in a very bad cdhditioh in mady places,’and not only’ the' road, - whose ‘ ‘‘ cordproymg” has become rotten and dan- • gerous traps, but the'Lfidges, over considerable streams,, are so (dilapidated as to be actually dangerous. This is within: the t boundaries of Marlborough Province, where for years the doad has been completely ' neglected. Within Nelson liinitsthe road is in tolerable, repair, and the bridges are sate. But beyond, on the Marlborough side, the track generally is a slough, the’ crossings of several creeks are like a quaking iijuiusa, iUiu we are informed that a

horseman, while passing along a went through it, horse and all, into the stream eight or ten feet below ; and another story is told of a horse having to be cut out from among the timbers of a rotten bridge, among which he got fixed. On the other side of the Wakamarina the track is if possible worse, and the stretches of bad road are much longer, particularly in the Kaituna Valley, which is reported by a recent traveller to be a perfect morass, for miles the horse sinking to his knees at every step, and the progression consequently being exceedingly slow. This is very far from what should be the state of the best means of communication by land between this and the adjacent province, especially at a time when traffic is likely to increase; but when there is no prospect of return, it would bo folly on the part of the Kelson Government to make roads in another province, and in the utter prostration of the Marlborough Provincial Exchequer it were absurd to expect any expenditure for road purposes from that quarter, especially when its educational system has collapsed. The General Government, to whom Marlborough has of late been looking for its main support, cannot afford to spend a shilling for such work, and probably would not if it could. , And so the road must remain dangerous to horse and rider. If a real rush were to set in for the Wakamarina, and a gold-field in working order were established, the difficulty would speedily be overcome. Until this is accomplished we have not much hope of seeing any appreciable road reform in Marlborough.