THE BULLER RIVER.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 470, 25 February 1869, Page 3

THE BULLER RIVER.

(from oue own cobbespondent.) The late rains only supplied generally water for about two days, and as the weather has taken up again most of the claims are nearly idle ; stripping paddocks and stacking " washdirt," and bringing in any available water that can be had, is almost the only work going on. The parties concerned in the Eightmile Creek race have made a start to-day, and are setting vigorously to work. They hope in about six weeks to have the water as far as the claims taken up at the late small rush to the Maori Terrace, which is turning out all that was expected of it, although most of the six claims on gold there are also idle for want of water. They hope to trace the lead further on as soon as they have stripped the ground. Yorkey and party, who obtained thirteen pennyweights of coarse gold in a terrace about ten miles up the Lyell, have relinquished the idea of working the ground there, from the expense and difficulty to be encountered in getting up provisions, and have taken up a claim about three miles down the river from the Lyell junction; thus, for want of tracks, much rich ground remains unworked. The parties engaged at Manuka Flat are still actively prosecuting their tunnel operations, but have not as yet struck payable gold, though none doubt of its existence there.

I suggested in my last, that it might pay a private party to obtain protection for, and construct a track up the Lyell, but thepresent population would not warant it, but if the Government made one I am sure that a store there would pay very well. One party last week picked up nearly an ounce of course gold in the Lyell, in the crevices of the rocks, quite close to its junction with the Buller. ,

A store is also greatly needed at the Blackwater, and another between the Lyell and the Inangahua, both of which would not only pay well, but would enable the country there to be worked. It is now scarcely prospected, and is an exceedingly likely country. A few parties are quietly working there and obtaining good coarse gold. No one has yet appeared to receive applications for water rights or issue miners' rights. This takes up a great deal of Mr Florian Adankin's time, and although he is one of the most obliging men in the world, it is hard to impose so much trouble on an unpaid business man, and water is now so precious that already litigation has commenced about races and waterrights, which could be much simplified, and a good deal of injustice that might accrue avoided, by the presence of a paid responsible party here. A great want here too is a bank agency for the purchase of gold. It would be a great boon to both the miners and business people, as transmission of gold to town when occasion requires to send money there is always very inconvenient.

A post-office also is very much needed. Many localities in the neighborhood of Kelson, with not a tithe of our population, have that accomodation afforded them. Mr Charles Cohen has established an express which will, in some small way, remedy the evil, but it is a shame that the Government only seek to draw revenue from us by all possible means, and apparently care not a straw for our wants.

A few parties have gone down the river from here last week on account of the great want of water, abusing the place in no measured terms. The bringing in of the Eight-Mile Creek, by the Upper Buller "Water-race Company, as Messrs Noble, Coe, and party term their water-race, will certainly beinvaluableto the neighborhood, and no doubt profitable to themselves.