PROSPECTS of the WEST COAST.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 430, 22 November 1876, Page 2

PROSPECTS of the WEST COAST.

The Xumara Times, in a recent article referring to the future prospects of the West Coast districts of the Middle Island, says : —“ Nature has denied to the West Coast the rolling plains suitable for a pastoral or an agricultural country. It. is true no countless herds of cattle roam undisturbed from north to south—it is not the Devonshire or the Leicestershire of the South, but it is pre-eminently the Cornwall and Northumberland—it is the two ends of England rolled into one. Ever since the discovery of gold on the banks of the Lyell, the West Coast has forged a-hcad till the discovery of Hokitika. the Grey, and Charleston sent the population in a stream to these shores, and for a time the West Coast was the ix-surt «>r tiAou.'-M.uti.-s who flocked here, and with the invariable result—some to rise to affluence, others to srain a mere living, and others to leave it disappointed. For some time the Coast lingered, and one after the other the diggings were reputed to be worked out, and the great centres of population were comparatively deserted, but fill recently a different aspect came over the scene. Attention was devoted to its vast fields of coal, and it is now proved they are almost inexhaustible. Steps are being taken to render the coal ports of West port and Grey mon th the Newcastle* of the south. With coal of the finest quality, close to the mouth of the river, it only wanted some improvements to render it navigable for lame ships of burden, and this will havetohedone. Almost at the.same time as these improvements were beingr made in (he North, news camecf the discovery of the mountain of wealth in the shape of the silver mines in the South, nt Mount Rangitoto. Not exactly a now discovery either, for it seems that specimens of the ore were lodged with the Bank of New Zealand some years aco, but were thrown aside as perhaps worthless. Now. however, attention has been drawn to the value of the discovery, and exploration and prospecting is going on in every direction around Rangitoto. Following close afterwards the boundless wealth of the Kuraara is made public. Land that was supposed to have been prospected years ago—in close proximity to large and well-known gold working*, is now proved

to be auriferous in almost every direction, giving employment to thousands, while from the geological indications there is every probability of golden deposits being traced to the Taipo Ranges, the rich reefs of which only want developing the same as those of the Inangahua, where the Hopefuls, the Alexandras, the Wealth of Nations, and other claims bid fair to eclipse the Povertys, Garden Guliys, and Hustlers, of old Bendigo. Therefore, we say, the mineralogical history of the West Coast is only in its infancy. With its silver and lead mines in the south, its alluvial auriferous deposits spread in every direction, more or less rich, its limestone ranges, what is there to prevent the West Coast becoming the great mining centre of the south ?