THE LYELL PROSPECTING PARTY.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 422, 7 December 1868, Page 2

THE LYELL PROSPECTING PARTY.

A few weeks since, we mentioned that a prospecting party had been equipped and furnished with a supply of provisions by some business men in "Westport, for the purpose of proceeding up the Bullef river to a large ■ ui i.iuu ul lium saia to De goia-proaucing , ground, situated above the Lyell, and . known as Manuka Flat. "We afterwards chronicled the accident which befel the party on their passage to the Lyell, by which their boat, provisions, and all the necessary implements for such an expedition were unfortunately lost. Subsequent to that occurrence they were again placed in possession of similar means for recommencing their journey, and we are happy to say that that journey came to a more successful termination, on the sth of last month. The time of the party was then occupied for a few clays in erecting a hut and making other domestic arrangements. Last Saturday evening a meeting of those gentlemen who started the expedition was held, and a letter from the men was produced, in which they stated that they had considered it prudenttocotnmenceoperations by tunnelling from the river bankfhrough the reef into the flat. This course was adopted as our readers will be aware that all the gold found at the Upper Buller diggings has been procured from the bed rock ; and the prospecting party bad made a progress up to the date of their letter, of 60 feet in their passage through the reef. They report having come ou some seams of wash, though not in payable quantities, but they entertain sauguine hopes of striking valuable ground when they have penetrated the reef and reached the flat. Their next communication is expected by Saturday, and is no doubt anxiously looked forward to by the originators of the experiment. Should this ground be found auriferous Manuka Flat will support at least a population of 2000 men, and the tunnel now in course of construction will prove of double advantage by both testing the ground and relieving it from water, which would greatly expedite the future operations of the miner. ,No small credit is due to those gentlemen who have promoted the above object. They have, up to the present, expended £ls each on the undertaking, and, should they be rewarded by success the benefit derived will not be alone an individual one, but of equal advantage to the business population of Westport, which will give a stimulus to t-ade and more quickly advance our already improving district. Hopes of an addition to our gold-fields are not alone confined to the Buller. On Thursday last, a party of men who had been working near the range, on Giles Terrace, more as an experiment than with an expectation of reaching aold,

came on a new and distinct lead of gold, having its course from the range towards the sea. The discovery of this ground caused a rush, and several new claims have been taken up. Those occurrences [ predict a favourable future for Westport, and lead us to think that the Buller is as yet only in its infancy as a gold-producing district.