THE WANGAPEKA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 103, 3 May 1870, Page 2

THE WANGAPEKA.

To the Editor of the Neison Eyening Mail. Sib — In the Colonist of April 19th, there is an article purporting to be a true account of the Wangapeka, by its own correspondent. That the -writer of that article is their own correspondent I have no doubt, but that is a very slight qua- j ran tee as to the truth of the report. Amongst many other mis-statements, there is one with reference to Batchelor's reef, in which the writer says he cannot conscientiously call it a reef, and goes on to state something about a blow and a hole three feet deep. • Now, Sir, I think that the writer of such nonsense must have been so overburdened with conscience or laziness that he could not walk to the edge of the creek where he "would have seen 30 feet of a well-defined reef, five feet thick at least, or, if he had made use of his eyes, he would have seen a tunnel alongside the reef 40

feet long. Sir, I do not wish to make Batchelor's reef appear better than it really. is, but such an unfounded assertion I cannot leave unnoticed. The reef is said by all who have taken the trouble to examine it to be the best defined reef at present known in this district, and has ! been proved gold-bearing. It is the reef noticed in the surveyor's map, as being risible in the creek, I am much surprised that a paper of auch high standing as the Colonist should [ not be more careful in obtaining reliable I correspondents, and trusting that it will i display more caution for the future. I am, &c, U. Batchelob.