THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 141

will no doubt be taken to form permanent roads.
Just now this would be premature, as there may be
two thousand diggers in one place to-day, and on
hearing of some new rush, they might be all away to
some distant point in less than a week. Timber being
everywhere so abundant, and the land being level,
it will be found, I should think, when the place
becomes more settled, that wooden tramways will be
the cheapest and most suitable roads that could be
constructed.

At the end of last month I estimate that there
must have been about 7000 people in the district.
Of these about 3000 were at the Waimea or Six-
mile Diggings; 2000 digging and prospecting in
other places; and about the same number congre-
gated at the township at Port Hokitika. Among the
latter would be included the people who are con-
stantly coming to and leaving the diggings, the
packers, storekeepers, and a considerable number be-
longing to a class having no particular occupation,
but which seems always to be inseparable from the
various rushes to new diggings. I found it very
difficult to get any reliable information as to the yield
of gold, for the diggers, as a class, are not communi-
cative on this point. I saw, however, on the Wai-
mea, two parties of four men each wash out between
them, for their day's work, about five ounces of gold;
this would yield about £2 7s. per man. Very few
were getting more than this, and many, no doubt,
very much less. The amount of gold purchased by the
various Banks during the fortnight I was at Hokitika
was about 5600 ounces. Estimating that there were
3000 people constantly at work, and this is per-
haps rather above than below the actual number,
the amount of gold I have named would give on an
average £3 10s. per week for each man. Owing to
the nature of the country, it is a most laborious
undertaking for men to have to prospect ground at
any distance from the banks of the rivers and streams,
on account of the difficulty of carrying their food and
tools through the bush; it will therefore take a long
time to ascertain fully the extent of ground that can
be worked with advantage.

It is quite impossible to account for the present
rush of people to the West Coast, except by ascrib-
ing it to the characteristic restlessness of the diggers,
which appears to impel them to join in every great
rush to new Goldfields. Many disappointed diggers
will no doubt soon leave, but large numbers who have
good claims will remain for a long time in the dis-
trict. The only way in which these people can be
supplied with stores and provisions at the various
diggings until permanent roads are made, is by means
of packhorses or bullocks; and as there is no natural
pasture whatever for these animals, a large quantity
of forage of different kinds will constantly be re-
quired; the heavy expense of getting this round by
sea will be the means of inducing people to cultivate
green crops; and once that settlers have gone to the
trouble of clearing and cropping the land, they will
become attached to the place, and will not readily
abandon it; other local industries will soon spring
up, and the occupation of the country by permanent
settlers will thus be very much promoted.

The chief drawback to the settlement of the district
is the want of good harbors; but the presence of
gold will stimulate people to use every exertion to
remedy this defect as far as possible, by obtaining
vessels of light draught suitable for the rivers, such
as those which are used for some of the bar harbors
of Australia.

A practicable track from the eastern side of the
Island to the West Coast, through the Teremakau
Pass, has, I believe, just been found. The value of
this for travellers, and for driving stock overland, as
well as for postal purposes, can hardly be over-esti-mated; but I imagine that merchandise of all kinds,
even though a good road should be made by this
route, will still be conveyed by sea as the cheapest
means of transit.

The people on the West Coast, beyond the single
question of the road across from Christchurch, will
have very little concern in the affairs of the other
side of the province; and as most of them come from
Otago, Invercargill, Nelson, the Northern Provinces,
and from Australia direct, it is scarcely to be ex-
pected that they will ever feel more interest in the
affairs of Canterbury than in those of any other Pro-
vince of New Zealand. It is pretty certain, there-
fore, if the settlers about Hokitika increase at all
rapidly, or even maintain their present numbers, that
they will very soon declare themselves in favor of
having a separate Province; they will require every
farthing of the revenue raised in their district to lay
out on roads to open up the country; and immedi-
ately any land-fund accrues, they will be jealous of
seeing any part of it spent on the eastern side of
Canterbury Province.

It is impossible yet to say with absolute certainty
where the chief town will be. If South Wanganui
is found to be a better harbor than the Hokitika,
and the ground in its vicinity yields a larger quantity
of gold than that does which is now being worked
near the Hokitika, it will naturally become the chief
centre of trade and population; but without some
such decided advantages in its favor, I do not think
it is likely to rival the present township, where
already a great many people have settled down and
constructed substantial buildings. The Hokitika ha
also the advantage of having a greater breadth of flat
land in its vicinity than there appears to be at any
other point on the coast, and is only fourteen miles
from the Teremakau, where the road from Christ-
church most likely will reach the coast, and twenty-
three miles from the Grey, which river, it is said, can
be entered by vessels at times when it is difficult to
cross the bar of the Hokitika.

The place where the first stores and other build-
ings were erected at the Hokitika was evidently
selected only to meet the emergency of the moment,
as it is nothing more than a sandbank which has been
thrown up by the sea near the entrance of the river,
towards which it dips, rendering it liable to be flooded
in that part, whilst a portion of the other side is ex-
posed to danger from the sea. The permanent town-
ship is being laid off a little further up the river,
where the ground is higher, is not exposed to floods,
and is quite as accessible to vessels as the point lower
down where they now lay to discharge their cargoes.
I pointed out to the Government Surveyor a suitable
site for the Custom House, and the Provincial Secre-
tary has been good enough to give directions for an
acre of land to be reserved there for this purpose.
This allotment will be sufficiently large for sites for
most of the buildings required by the General
Government for a long time to come, and will, I
think, be found to be so situated as to be equally
convenient for them all.

Full reports have no doubt long since been made
to the Government relative to the coal found at the
Grey, but as I went up that river and saw the mine,
I may here furnish one or two particulars respecting
the working of the coal which may not have been
previously noticed. The seam lies exposed in a cliff
on the north side of the river, several feet above the
water. It is also seen on the Canterbury side, but
there it is only just above the surface of the river,
and appears to dip downwards. The mine is on the
north or Nelson side of the river, and consists of a
simple tunnel driven into the coal seam at right
angies to the river bank. Only a few men are
working at it, and they turn out about forty tons a