One Gold Fields.

Colonist, Issue 12, 1 December 1857, Page 2

One Gold Fields.

SLATE RIVER. [from oub own correspondent.]

; November .26, 1857. An opportunity offering, I beg to send you a short account of what we arq doing in this part of the world. As you will have heard by this we have just had one of the largest floods we have yet been visited with. It has done pretty well all a serious injury, as well as kept all hands from work for a few days. The rain commenced on Tuesday evening, about knocking off time, and continued without intermission until Thursday morning. On Wednesday morning, about daylight, when we turned out, the river had not risen at all, but in about 3 hours, it rose 8 or 10 feet, and continued to rise more or less throughout the day. It was really laughable to see the different way in which men took the catastrophe, some would stand on the bank, and when they saw the huge waves come rolling down, bringing along with them large trees and wrecks of dams and sluices would swear, others would laugh, some would look serious and say nothing, others would shake their heads, and vow to hook it now whether, or no, and others again would take to drinking. The upshot of the whole is, the flood has done the diggers and diggings a great harm. Large parties, who have been at work for weeks forming claims and sluices, have now all their work to do over again, and those, who have not suffered in this way suffer by being compelled to loose time in waiting for the subsiding of the waters. If I.were asked my candid opinion of the present prospect of the diggers, I should say that if you except the present loss, their chance of success is still |good. The days are getting longer and warmer, and the floods must certainly occur less frequently, and in the mean time, the gold has not been moved. It is there still, and when the dry weather rea'ly sets in, there will be room on the Slate River alone for double the quantity of men there at present, The Quartz Ranges are generally spoken very favourably of, the great drawback to their development is the scarcity of provisions; if they were more abundant, men would go even much further still, aud do well. Folks grumble at not getting their papers more regularly, do try and oblige us in this respect. The pages of your paper especially are very acceptable; embracing as they do so much interesting readable matter. We have just had a discussion in ■ our party as to the account published by Mr. W. Lightband, of the discovery of the Nelson gold fields, and I think I may say there is no two opinions amongst the diggers as to who is most entitled to the reward which is promised to the discoverer of a workable gold field. Everything we ever did get to know about them we have known through Lightband ; nothing through either Ellis or James, therefore, supposing they proved that they found gold before the time that Lightband worked, they never made it publicly knowo, nor proved it a workable field. I will send you more news when I can get any to send, but situated as we are at the bottom of a deep deep gorge, you may naturally suppose news is scarce.