LETTER FROM NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 205, 5 August 1862, Page 5

LETTER FROM NEW ZEALAND.

(From the Inijhicoo.l Adccrth,--,'.) We have been permitted by T.fr. Thomas Lnwsr>n to publish the Mowing letter, which he has received from Xew Zealand:—

Gabriel's Gully, June 30,15G2. Dear Tom,—l hasten to answer your welcome letter, and tell you what I hnve been doinir. Jack Thompson and I have be-on in one claim *ye" since we came up. We bo-.urht into a'»ii.v.-> of old ground for £1, and got iifrv. s'nliin-s nut the fi'-st day It has boon paving: ev-^r since from £i to £7 a week. _It will so >:i be worked our now. We have been s.uicin^ ami strippinir. or turninir over old mulj 10.-k f>r over 4 month;. The >>art:es who had tha fn-vua.lmits primitive state took £'1000 ft man out oi it; but, thank goo.hu s;, they were from Canterbury. Our share would have been small if they had ha, 1 any experience. I am very pi ad I ieft the Waipori country when I did. stinting bacon and mouldy biscuit—wet u» to the knees and over every day we went to "workCould not get enough sold to pay tucker; no wood to b;>il p. buly when it would rain heavy. We huddled up like pigs to keep ourselves warm. 'I saw a man in tie next tent shovelHnsr thelly blows -oft' his blank.-te —near a oucket-fuil. j>ome people lui^at not credit this, but tho-ewho have been in the produce know all about it. The Taramcrian hills and above the Waipon has been covered with snow for the last six weeks, from a loot to two and a-half. There seems to be a great uiiTerence in the c'imate here. We have had three months as [rood weather as ever I would wish, but since the snow first iell it has been very cold, and nearly every one I know or see pre troubled with chilblain?, or foot-rot, as it is called here. It beats all that ever came across me. You imirht fancy a hen on a hot griddle to see us "-oin«- to wor* on the frosty mornings. We can live very comfortably here considering ail tiling. A s'.ed^e-load of wood is 35.?. y,'e soinotiines bring in a back load but it is almost too far now, and there is a deal of snow anion-^t the scrub. The ln<rlewoo,l folks need not g-umble about die small wood they have. I have Ic-a thinking of sending a letter to you iorthe lii'/le-u-ood Adci-rtbicr, but have had wry little tine. There Knot one of the new rushes to be depended on yet; "tw much like it \Vai:>ori " for mo, and this fa a bad country to travel in. If th^ Victorians come over here pell-mell, on account of some of the newspaper report; about new uold fields, 4cthey'llju«t c'en gae back again,s' and may never turn a sod. It is very disheartening to tro to a new place—plenty snow, plenty water, no wood, very little <;oid, and n*> loaves or tea to to be got. I shall not leave Gabrif-"s Gully, fjr I am alive to the foot of being comfortable. We have had any amount of fresh pork of our owii killing-, and I was nearly being devoured one time by a boar, afier liis countenance had been spoiled with slugs. You should have seen me run, with an empty gun and aa empty powder fla«k, and niv mate; laughing at t^e joke." I heartily wished old snouty had given them a turn. Then the joke would have been on the other side; for they all declared they were not abie to walk a bit further, so w« left bin master of tiie field. We swasrtred about 25 or 3i> V.s. each, and that for seven miles "was hard work. One ccuid have made 15s. a day.pig slaving, so there was no fear of starving. ■ " I rtmain, yours sincerel.v, Jonx S. Archer.