EE ii ia 
Hamruton.—0On the District of Okarito, Westland, 887 
exist, quite eqfal to much land in the North Island, that amply repays the 
capital investeck The opening of the Okarito-Bowen Road will, no doubt, 
cause more land to be taken up for boná fide settlement. Communication 
will then be of a more certain character, and travellers will be enabled to 
avoid the difficulties and dangers of the rivers and rocky bluffs on the coast 
line. One of the most interesting sights in New Zealand, the Franz Josef 
Glacier, will then attract more visitors to its beautiful scenery and wondrous 
masses of ice and snow. 
In what are generally known as the “early days,” Okarito was a 
flourishing township, and the diggings on the various beaches north and 
south of it, were swarming with busy workers, washing from the sands the 
particles of gold brought down by the rivers from the hills ages ago, and 
since divided into small particles now found. The geology and mineralogy 
of the hill-country, towards the main range at the back of the district, is 
not known with accuracy, owing to the difficulties of penetrating the inter- 
vening bush. As far as can be judged from the materials composing the 
terraces which form the undulating ground between the hills and the sea, a 
number of valuable minerals are stored in this part of the country, and it 
is not too much to express an opinion that, when fully explored, the ranges 
south of Mount Tyndall will prove to be the Cornwall of New Zealand, 
Owing to the deficiency of good harbours on this part of the West Coast, 
it may be very long before a trade can be established. Hitherto the only 
mineral sought for has been gold, and many are the places in which it has 
bzen found—in fact, it never having been found in the river Waitaki (or 
Waitangi) renders it a remarkable river, running as it does through the 
same kind of country, and having rivers and creeks on each side of it that 
have yielded heavy amounts of gold. I have not the opportunity of exam- 
ining areturn of the total amount of gold procured in the district, but it 
must be very large, as the different diggings at the Forks, the Three-Mile 
and Four-Mile Beaches, the Waio and Wateroa rivers and McDonald's 
Creek, have proved at one time or another very rich. Very few are now 
working on the beaches, for, though far from being exhausted, the sand 
shifts so much with every gale of wind and heavy sea, that it mixes the 
sand from which the gold has been taken with that still containing the 
metal. Thus to extract the gold requires more labour than previously, as 
much sand has to be washed that has already been impoverished. Very 
curious and beautiful this black sand looks under the low powers of a 
microscope, heaps of rubies and diamonds appear to be mixed with ** patines 
of fine gold ” and stones of less brightness and beauty, with here and there 
thin laminz of mica and pearly-looking quartz. 
Unfortunately for Okarito no reefs have yet been found showing any 
