THE BULLER RIVER.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 479, 18 March 1869, Page 3

THE BULLER RIVER.

(FBOM OTTR OWN COBBESPOJtfDENT.) Caldwell and party have just completed a new water-race from a tributary of the Lyell to their claim at the back of the township. The lead there has turned out very well indeed. There is much ground that would pay well which cannot be profitably worked on account of the great scarcity of water. The country is so exceedingly rough and rock-bound that fluming has largely to be resorted to. The Eight-mile Creek party have I been obliged, on the completion of Mr [ Coe's survey, to abandon the course they first selected, and adopt one at a much higher level, thereby lessening the number of heads which they at first proposed to bring in, but greatly reducing the cost, and, consequently, the time that it will take to bring the water on to their ground. The party whom I alluded to in a former letter as about to bring in a race from a branch of the Lyell have given up the attempt, finding the cost too c;reat. The prospectors of Manuka Flat have, I am sorry to say, abandoned their tunnel, not having sufficient patience to prospect any longer. There is much diversity of opinion among the miners as to the best mode of trying the ground, some holding that a shaft and not a tunnel is most likely to discover the gold-bearing strata. Many of the miners, from not having sufficient water to sluice their ground, have betaken themselves to cradling until the wet weather sets in. Ground that will pay handsomely by sluicing will barely make " tucker " by cradling. Consequently the business people are complaining loudly about the scarcity of money. Mr Sloane, late of the Public Works, is busy excavating the foundations of his intended accommodation - house. I am sorry to say that he met a severe accident by a fall while doing so, but he is getting all right again. Shanty-keepers aro beginning to multiply along the road between the Lyell and Newton townships, no less than three shanties being in course of erection.

There have been some parcels of gold taken here last week with quartz attached, thus proving the existence of gold-hearing reefs in the neighborhood. Indeed all the tributaries of the Buller in the locality intersect elate and quartz reefs, so that the discovery of a payable reef I take to be merely a question of time.

The competition among the Buller boats has reduced the freight for goods from £2O to £l6 per ton. The population up the Matukatuku has largely increased lately, numbering fully three hundred miners there now. I have not beard of any parties there doing more than making wages. Some ground is also being taken up at the Lyell for cultivation, evidently proving that some have confidence in the permanency of the place. Indeed a country so abounding in resources cannot well be otherwise. Limestone, coal, and sandstone abound, and some rery nice specimens of copper have been discovered in the neighborhood of the Owika. On the Blackwater a seam of splendid bitumenous coal crops out for fully thirty feet, and near Pern Flat it is so plentiful as to be used for domestic purposes. Limestone is also very abundant, and should pay well to burn for the adjoining markets. Fresh arrivals continue coming every day, and the next three months will, I believe, see the Lyell and Buller get a thorough prospecting. The road contracts are not yet out, though so much needed, but I understand they will be so in a few days.