BULLER RIVER DIGGINGS

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 278, 22 June 1868, Page 2

BULLER RIVER DIGGINGS

(feom otjb, own cokbespondent) Westport, June 20. Having just returned from a general tour up the Buller, I shall give you a short sketch of the leading facts that have come under my notice, the truth of which may be relied upon:—

On almost every terrace from Snag Falls up, gold has been found, but very little trial has been given to any of them until the "old diggings " are reached, about ten miles this side Inangahua. Here on the south bank, Lovel and party, have lately set in and taken about 6oz of gold off a small paddock. They have brought in two races, and sunk a shaft in new ground. In the first paddock they had 14 feet of stripping. In their present shaft they got three grains of gold in the first three feet from the surface; in the next three feet, about double that quantity, and so on increasing until at a depth of ten feet they struck the " bed rock " and obtained about three grains to the dish, this ground they intend to sluice through boxes, having provided themselves with hose and all necessary apparatus, and no doubt it will pay them well. On the opposite bank, Harvey and party have spent about 18 months in cutting a tail-race, and washed sufficient gold out of the excavated material! to keep them in tucker. Christie and party, are also working well here and doing fairly. The ground is very patchy, and although no claim when in fair working order, yields under about £3 per week per man, some are making as high as £SO. The gold is generally small nuggets, shotty, scaly and very fine, at least that which I have seen washed out is of that character.

One party, Beattie &Co have to shovel their stuff into a canoe, boat it across the Buller, and wash it on the opposite side, and yet with all these disadvantages make from £lO to £ls per week per man. This claim is about two miles above the Lyell.

On the Lyell about 200 or 300 men are at work, some merely making wages, and others about£4o to £SO per marl per week, among the former, with the usual restlessness of miners some are leaving and others are daily moving up to try their luck. Ou Manuka flat, an area of grouud over 1000 acres in extent, and situated about half a mile above the Lyell. Tom "Walsh and party, are putting in a prospecting tunnel and are confident of success. ludeed few men up the river are not realising more than Mr C. M'Kay's report says can be made on the Auckland gold fields, while some are doing exceedingly well indeed, as is proved by their long continuance on the ground, some of the present parties being nearly five years there.

The numerous bad slips, and in some places all but impassable state of the roads, keeps the Buller almost a terra incognita, none of the numerous tributaries down, stream of the Lyell, are prospected from the want of stores to get provisions at, as the little that men can carry is soon exhausted, and between Packers point and the Inangahua, a single store does not exist. At the Blackwater there is a good site for one, and is about a fair days journey from Westport, and would be a considerable calling place if an accomodation house and store existed, as is evidenced by the numerous remains of recent tents on the ground. There is not even a ferry here, although the slightest rain makes the river impassible for days. All the upper and lower Buller is a diluvial drift formation, and where the " bed-rock" can be reached, gold is certain of being found in more or less quantities, and will furnish profitable occupation for a century to come. A splendid quality of sandstone, so adapted for building purposes as to require no dressing, crops out about a mile above the Blackwater, and with bricks in Nelson at £4 10s. per thousand, this a muc more suitable and durable material, it surely would pay well to bring it down for sale; no blasting is required, merely crowbars and wedges, as it comes out in regular layers.

It is greatly to be regretted that this district receives so little attention from the Government, as if the present road were put in repair, and the " Hawks Crag," about two miles below the Blackwater, blasted, a good pack road would exist the whole way from Westport to Nelson. At present thecarriage by boats, on account of the uncertainty of time of delivery caused by freshes, often amounting to a delay of a fortnight, amounts to £2O per ton. r

Another evil exists in a sort of tacit understanding that now obtains among the miners, namely that one partyshall not interfere with another party's terrace, the usual pegging off of claims being on small terraces never resorted to, and while there is, as at present, a scarcely passable road, and no supervision on the part of the authorities things will continue as they are.