CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 216, 13 September 1870, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE WANGAPEKA. To the Editor or the Nelson Evening Mail. Sik — Believing that Nelson and Wangapeka might be better acquainted with mutual benefit to one another, and having just returned from a visit to the latter place, I send you a few remarks which you may make use of in any way you please. When speaking of Wangnpeka with Nelson people, I have, I suppose, been asked fifty times such questions as " Why don't they put up machinery;" "How is it they i don't send down any gold;" "Do you really think there is anything to be done there?" &c, showing that notwithstanding all that has been said and written about Wangapeka, many people know nothing about it, and have no idea of the difficulties to be overcome before the riches of the quartz-reefs there can be made to gladden their eyes and reach their pockets. If they ouly knew and fairly considered that long flumes, heavy waterwheels, and buildings have to be constructed, expensive machinery purchased, and conveyed to the place over roads which are in some places a broad expanse of mud and roots, and in others a narrow cutting about wide enough for a wheelbarrow, and where a slip would send the load crashing over the rocks and timber ; further, that the quartz is situated high up ' on a hill, to climb which tries the wind of any one who makes the attempt without being in pretty good training ; that this quartz has to be mined for by means of tunnels and shafts through rock, in some places so loose that all the skill of the miner is required to prevent his work and himself from being smothered by the masses of rock each stroke of the pick may bring down on him, and in others so hard that the toil of a strong party of men, working without intermission from midnight on Sunday to the same hour on the following Saturday, will only effect an advauce of four or five feet, though aided by the best tools, gunpowder, &c. j also, that the rain is almost incessant, and the cost of living high, and the men as a rule entirely without capital. If, I say, all this is fairly considered, people will no longer wonder that more has not been done. In spite of all this, the miners as a rule have such strong confidence that the future will repay them for all their toil and sufferings, that they only sell a portion of their claims when almost starved into doing so, and they view with wonder the indifference of the Nelson public about a matter that concerns them so much. This confidence I confess I share with them, and, if a fair amount of help is afforded them by those who have money, I believe another year will see a great improvement in this part of the province. I may here state that having no share in any of the claims, I cannot be suspected of " preaching up my own Saint," as the French say. From what I saw, and what I heard, during my stay at Wangapeka, I believe that the various claims on Culliford's, Doran's, and Doran's No. 2 reefs, will keep many heavy batteries fully and profitably employed. Which reef is likely to give best returns it is impossible for me or anyone to say at present, while not a few incline to the belief that the richest reefs have not yet been found. la all those I have mentioned there are chances

of investing on very moderate terms, but to every intending investor I would give the advice "Go and see for yourself." As I do not fear being brought to task for any statements I have made here,° I sign myself, Graham L. Greenwood. Nelson, September 10, 1870.