WEST COAST SETTLEMENT.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1236, 11 December 1874, Page 4

WEST COAST SETTLEMENT.

A special settlement is about to be founded at Jackson's Bay under the auspices of the West!and Provincia Government. The following descrip. tion of the district is from the West Coast Times.—

Jackson's Bay is the spot selected to be, at some future time, proclaimed by the Governor as a Special Settlement for intending immigrants and others, who, it is to be hoped will ere long find remunerative employmentin their several avocations, whether the same be in the way of gold mining, coalmining, woodcutting, or farming, or whatever new industries, as new industries they are sure to be, they may engage in. The site selected for the town is at the extreme north of the Special Block. The excellent harbor accommodation, naturally formed, makes that point the most desirable centre. The Block will from that point extend north and south of the Arawata river, consisting of excellent land, distant from two to three miles from the port. Referring to the new industries which are likely to be developed after a population has fairly set in, Mr Macfarlane assures us that large quantities of limestone and sandstone are already in abundance close to the bay, and what is of still greater importance, an excellent sample of coal has been discovered already by. one of the miners working there, though the extent of the seam has not yet been defined, only a mere outcrop being visible. Clay for brick-making is also abundant and easily to be obtained. Another discovery, and one of very considerable importance, if its value is fully appreciated, was the discovery of numbers of the true herring close to the coast in the vicinity of the Bay. One of the men working in that locality, assured Captain Bascand that herrings were visible in large numbers among the rock at certain seasons. These fishes, one. of which Captain Bascand had in his possession, resemble the ordinary herring so plentiful on the coasts of Scotland. In color of scale and size of body and fin they are exactly alike. We may mention that James Tear, who is well known in Hokitika, where he was for some time engaged following the occupation of a boatman, expressed himself so satisfied with the prospect of the herring curing business iu that locality, from the numbers he has seen in the waters, and the presence of whales in the deeper waters outside, which has always been taken as an indication of smaller fish being abundant, that he has resolved upon starting at Jackson's Bay in the fishing and curing business.