WANGAPEKA DIGGINGS.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 365, 23 April 1861, Page 2

WANGAPEKA DIGGINGS.

The return of the Provincial Engineer from the. gold district of Wangapeka has fully confirmed the very acceptable accounts previously received from private sources, and the favorable reports that reached us previously of men making thirty shillings per diem, have been surpassed by au authorised statement that earnings will even doublo that amount if the work be persevered i:i. This locality, as is well known, was a point of attraction to the hardy prospectors who have from time to time, for fully two years past, made occasional visits there, prompted by a desire to establish a fact in which they felt much confidence—that the country was richly auriferous, though their visits resulted only in a retention of their opinion without at that time having attained the precise locality where indubitably paying ground could positively be aaid to exist. The consequence of the steadfast confidence that some entertained in these views was, that desultory attemp s have from time to time been made without any great result immediately following or confirming these favorable impressions, und it is ouly very lately through a small party of prospectors having penetrated to an hitherto untried and unknown spot, some certainty of payiug workings was arrived at. From that time up to the present the uumber of men has increased, at first very slowly; latterly it has been the general theme, and consequently diggers or visitors have been more numerous; aud, according to the last accouuts furnished by uo less a reliable source than the Provincial Engineer, we may look confidently forward for this distric!; to give Nelson an impetus of no mean cr unenduring description. Prospectors, returned to town after passing two or three days at the new diggings, have shown the rich yield of the ground by the beat of all possible tests—the gold itself—which, obtained by almost ridiculously primitive apparatus, has nevertheless.. yielded a daily wage to ■ one man equal to that of two or three sturdy town mechanics. The unusual yield of the ground might be proved by even more attrac- ! tive statements, and the future in store lor the

province through this means might well ba highly tinted and exultingly set forth; but tbd fact is sufficient for the present purpose. Let judgment temper any eager or inconsiderate attempts that many may be prompted to make towards this locality, at least until the roads are in sucli a condition as to make,the travelling to and from only a matter of distance, instead of being beset with difficulties of every kind that now present themselves at a! 1 hands. Perhaps a worse 60 or 70 miles of road, naturally, could not be found out of Nelson than this in its priortiva state for all the requirements of a digging population: and although much is in progress to render the tra»k<, roads, fords, &o, of aii ordinary character, yet some weaks must inevitably elapse before only the usual difficulties of the gold seeker will remain. Besides this we would counsel an absence of precipitancy in proceeding to a notoriously frigid part of the country at the very oommencemect of winter ; many months of severe weather must ensue before the avocation of the gold-digger can be tolerably comfortable; to some it will be unbearable if undertaken at the approaching season, and to those who can follow their usual pursuits in the neighborhood of the towns during the winter; we can promise a positive advantage over the torrent and enow bound denizen of the icy gullies of the interior of the province.