SILVERTON.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1466, 5 November 1884, Page 2

SILVERTON.

♦ (from ouk own cokrespondent). Having promised to furnish you ■with some particulars of this far-famed El-Dorado, I hasten to fulfill my pledge. I left Reefton on the 21st of August; in the present year, and shipping at Lyttelton, reached Sydney on the sth September. After a brief stay in the city of the '• Cornstalks " I set out upon my journey toSilverton, reaching here, after many vexatious delays, on the 3rd October. The place presented a singular appearance, pre» senting an apt realisation of the early days of the gold mania in Victoria. Bullock drays and waggons formed a conspicuous figure in the strange spec^ tacle. The public-houses were thronged with the motliest crowd 1 have seen for twenty years. The business doing by the hotels was indeed a "roaring" on», and money seamed to be pretty plentiful. Crowds of men hung about the bars and entrances, drinking, shouting, and boasting of their claims, and the possession of priceless veins of silver. Some ■were exposing " slugs " of ore, and offering to sell; others had jusb sold, and were " splashing " the proceeds with a reckless prodigality that has no parallel since the early days of the Colonies. The men were a most nondescript class, shearers, splitters, and others of the genuine " sun-downer " family. There was something so entirely different in the • whole surroundings that one lingerod irresistahly on the scene. The men, their dress, their slang, their whole manner was so completely different to what one ordinarily meets with on the West Coast. The one topic animated this strange and incongruous assemblage. SilvcpViSilver, silver; slugs, slugs, slugs. I examined many of the latter, and found them composed of galena, silver, lead, copper and fifty other .doscrip'; tions of metals, enough to baffle the r mind of the most experienced £old miner. Agsayers, of whom there are about a dozen here, charge 12/6 for assays. The assayers are doing a good stroke, but the business is being overdone by competition. The town* ship atanda in the middle of a plain about seven miles in circumference, and is bounded on the north by the Barrier, and Mundy Mundy ranges, and it is on the former that the best of the claims are. There are four hotel* in the township, and two others

! are nearly finished. Almost every trade known has its representatives here already. Half the town, as far as surveyed at present, stands on private property, the other half being on Crown Land. The sections are one rood in area, and a-e held under business license, costing 20/ . To hold an allotment you must have a building of the value of £10 on it. My opportunities of getting at the prospects of the place have been as yet limited, but as far as I have been able to ascertain lam justified in warning West Coasters against breaking up their homes and throwing away the. proverbial "dirty water" in quest of anything better here. It is indeed a moat iuhospitable region, and as yet being in the "rough-and-tumble " stage of existence is a bad place for a man, unless he has his pockets well lined. There are dozens of men looking for work which they cannot obtain. There ara a few stone buildings going up, and stone-masons are pretty certain of employment, but the avenues in mostly a,ll the other trades are pretty well" blocked up by unemployed. Th* rate of wages in the township is 8/ per day, when employment can be obtained. Speculators and companies are. fast buying up the best claims, and by and bye when the mines are opened up, I believe it will be a great place, but for the prestmt the field offers no attraction for miners. Already the ground has been pegged off over an astonishing area, and those who go prospecting have to travel a great distance to get into no-man's land. This makes prospecting very expensive, and about £100 is about the least a man should venture here with. Isolated cases of great success there are, but the prizes are very disproportionate to the blanks, and I can say nothing to encourage miners coming here. The. field for months has been the focus to which population has been radiating from all parts of Australia, and it can therefore be easily understood that the place is no pai'adise for the unemployed. In the course of a week or two I will en deavor to famish your readers with a more full and complete description of the place. I have so far met with very few New Zealanders, though I am told there are one or two West Coasters working on the Barrier. The hot season is now upon us, and already the infant settlement is suffering from the scarcity of water, a drawback which will cause a serious check to the progress of the place.