THE INANGAHUA.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 774, 9 February 1871, Page 2

THE INANGAHUA.

(from our own correspondent.)

Itoss Town, Tuesday.

The latest excitement has been the rush on the Grey side of the Saddle, at the Miami Flat. It was thought from the first that Baker (the would-be prospector) was not acting as if truth, was on his side, as he marie more than one attempt to give the diggers the gobye. On his way up from the Junction to the place where he had asserted his golden claim was to be found, after scouring the district for three days, followed by some four hundred expectant diggers, Baker began to express an opinion that he had forgotten the whereabouts of the exact spot, aud afterwards owned that lie really was unable to rind it. The generally received opinion is that the man is half road, as beyond a few drinks at Greymouth. Baker apparently obtained, or even tried to obtain nothing in the shape of money or goods upon the faith of his having found a good claim, i am happy to add for the credit of the mining community that, though he certainly deserved rough usage, no outrage was perpeti-ated, and he was quietly given over to the police, who it is to be hoped will find some means or other of getting the vagabond six months' hard labor for his country's good. The Miami Flat resembles the vicinhty of Charleston, being nothing but an immense pakihi, dotted here and there with small belts of bush, the surface for about twelve inches is boggy, and underneath this is a hard conglomerate of cement aud boulders, in fact a more likely place for finding gold it would be hard to imagine, and even now, after the recent discouragement, nearly every miner acquainted with the locality believes that at some future day a good goldheld will be discovered there. The Flat is distant eight miles from the Inangalma liiver, and any auriferous discovery will benerit Westport quite as much as Greymouth, so I say the sooner it comes the better.

Several parties who had followed Baker's rush found their way to Ross Town, and have come to pay the reefs a visit; among these there are many clever practical judges of reefing, and up to the present time I have heard from them but one opinion, that the reefs are sufficiently rich to pay for working, and that beyond a question, a few mouths will see machinery on the ground and at work. In the fa -e of the present dull times, and sometimes almost despondency, too much stress cannot be laid upon such opinions, as they serve to keep up, and confirm what I and others have always asserted that this district will in twelve months be the richest and most prosperous in New Zealand.

I sent you down word the other day of Anderson ami party striking very rich stone iu their prospecting; claim, the look of the stone, which is found about a foot in the solid quartz, is that it will not yield less than 8 or 10 ozs to the to % :. This discovery has given quite an impetus to industry amongst the reefers, and, believe me,*a doubt of tho richness and payable properties of the whole of the reefs at the Murray, does no 1 now exist upon the mind of a single resident within the Inangahua Valley. This township has improved wonderfully withn the past month, all the buildings, as yet erected, are substantautially built—wood, with shingle roofs takes precedence, and calico is already becoming a thing of the past. Westport is well represented, every second person one meets comes from there, and whenever a late " Times " puts in an appearance a general rush is made to hear how you are all getting on at the port. We are all looking forward to the day, not far distant we hope, when it will pay you to publish a weekly paper and enable us to count upon getting news with more certainty than a casual traveller can furnish.

The almost total absence of rain for so long a period has caused great inconvenience and loss to the- alluvial miners; in some gullies and along the banks of the Buller, perhaps no single claim has been worked for more than five or six days within the past eight weeks—day after day the sain** cloudless sky, aud what "to you, near the sea, may be the height of enjoyment, is as the fable of the frogs—death to us. Tho importance of the General Government taking the subject of the construction of gigantic water-races on the West Coast into serious consideration, has become painfully manifest during the past and present summer mouths. 1 may say with truth that within the limits of the Nelson Goldfields alone, not less than £IO,OOO have been virtually lost to the colony, within the last few weeks owing to the insufficient water supply on the goldfields. It is to be hoped that our new member, Mr O'Conor, will, at an early period, devote his energies to this subject, and earn our gratitude •and future by striving to induce his fellow-members in the Assembly to look upon the prosperity of the.miners as of equal importance with that of trie squatter, and that he will never rest until grants of money have been obtained from the public chest, to give us a large, and constant supply of water for the working and develop, rnent of our inexhaustible mineral wealth.

Looking in retrospect from tho com-

uiencoment of the present year, we certainly have cause for congratulation —the number of settlers and miners on the Inangahua has considerably increased, and but, as I have just men-: tioned, for the scarcity of water, Westport would already be experiencing a return to better times. Great dissatisfaction is felt at the Warden intending to hold a Court on Fern Flat instead of here ; now in this lam forced to agree. Fern Flat is virtually isolated, and actually miles from the mining centre, and it is hoped, and expected that Dr G-iles will not insist upon dragging the unfortunate digger against his will, and in the lace of public opinion, to a spot that can benefit no one, except the keeper of the accommodation house at which the Court is to be held. The doctor is always looked upon as a just man, and if we make out a good case will, I aui convinced, own that we have a right to have a Court held at Boss Town, and give instructions to that effect. Whilst I am on the subject, the next Court day up the river is on the 14th of the present month, there are a large number of applications already for hearing, but I understand as yet, or likely to be, very little other business.

I think it is time 'the 'Postmaster at "Westport exert himself to obtain for us some sort of a mail service, the officials at Wellington are proverbially slow,-but in this matter they evidently exceed their former reputation. Our good citizens have sent two memorials to the Postmaster-General, but as yet have not even received the courtesy of an aeknowledment. Are we to put this down to bad manners or oversight ; probably the former is the more likely of the two. We do not, however, intend to bo discouraged at this treatment, but will try a third application, and if necessary even a fourth.

Provisions are plentiful and cheap. Flour 501b bag, 22s 6J ; meat, 10.1 per lb; potatoes, 25s per hundred. In the timber trade 25s to 30s per hundred for red pine, and shingles 80s per thousand.