in a worse plight and when at length rescued were in a starving state. Floods were general throughout Westland at this particular time, due to the late melting of the snow on the ranges, and much damage was done at Hokitika. Many drownings were also reported and every day diggers lost their lives in attempting to cross the snow-fed mountain torrents.
At this time the beaches just north of Greymouth were being worked to great advantage; in shallow ground slightly above high water mark as high as 30 ounces to the paddock were obtained, while at Darkie’s Terrace (Seven Mile), two hundred feet above sea level, extra-ordinarily rich wash was located which went from 12 to 20 ounces to the load. Further north Barrytown “broke out” and soon carried a large population; this field, too, proved remarkably rich, and so it went on until the whole of the beaches from West Wanganui in the north to Martin’s Bay in the south were yielding their golden harvests.
The discovery of the metal royal north of the Grey River which, as has been mentioned, is the southern boundary of the Province of Nelson, caused many complications, and one in particular which the diggers greatly resented. This being that a miner’s right issued by the Canterbury Provincial Council was of no use in the Province of Nelson, and vice versa; this meant that miners crossing the Grey
