MINING NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 459, 30 January 1869, Page 3

MINING NEWS.

In the numbers of our Nelson contemporarily received by tbe s.s. M array we notice some items of mining news relating to this Province and to others. Some gold has been brought to Nelson from the Upper Buller, and is thus noticed by the Colonist -. —Mr H» Drew has in his window in Tra-falgar-street, abont 170 ounces of fine scaly gold, which was brought down from the Matakitaki and the Upper Buller. This, we are told by good authority, is nearty an average fortnightly return. There are, it is said, about 120 men (we are not sure as to the exact number, it may be more or less,) up and down these rivers, and there is, therefore, a good deal of gold which goes to purchase country produce from farmers about the neighborhood, which gold, of course, comes down in a different way. There is a practicable dray road as far as the Devil's Grip ; beyond that, for about thirty Oi forty miles, is a horse track to the gold rivers. If these diggings are really valuable, and can support a large number of men, no doubt great advantage.- would accrue from the construction of a better road. Generally, hitherto, wo have heard these digging.- termed <: good poor man's digging*." Could we get a reliable return of the gold obtained, their actual merit could be more easily understood. Another groundless rumor, says the same journal, has been published about a rush at Havelock, and there is a story of 3fi>s. weight of gold having been brought into town on Wednesday from Havelock. We heard of the reported rush at Havelock on Wednesday ; but the gold was said nothing of, and none of the banks has heard a single word of sueh an import. A few ounces, which is the usual thing every week, have comedown from Havelock, but that proves nothing. There is a statement that a small rush had taken place to the Kaituna Flat, but we are told from good authority, that it has not resulted in anything noteworthy, and that things generally are unchanged in the Havelock district. The true story of the 31b weight of gold is this .- —A man who has been working on the Wakamaiina for some six or eight months, came into town on Wednesday, and left again yesterday, after selling about 12 ounces of gold which he had partly purchased from other persons, and on which he said he had lost money because the bank's price was lower than ho expected. It was a mere chance his coming down at all, and he reported to his friends that there was nothing unusual on the river. So much for exaggerated reports. A settler brought into Wellington on Saturday 9rb January, a fine specimen of gold, and a number of pieces of stone like the one which contained the specimen, which he said he had found near the mouth of tbe Karori stream. There is no doubt of the specimen being gold, and it is equallv certain that gold in small quantities has previously been discovered in the vicinity of the bea'ity indicated. Several parties have gone to the vicinity of the mouth of the Karori stream to prospect.