The following report from the Chief Commissioner of Police, to his Honor, the Superintendent, on the Waipori gold-field, has been placed at our disposal for publication.
It is evidently not exaggerated, and its tenor leads one to expect that the Waipori will prove to be a valuable addition to the already discovered gold-fields.
The badness of the roads leading to it is a great obstacle to its development. - Police Department, Commissioner's Office, 9th January, 1862.
Sir, - I do myself the honor to inform you, that on Tuesday, the 7th instant, I visited the Diggings in the neighbourhood of the Waipori River, and found from 1,200 to 1,500 miners extended along the Little Peak Creek, (so called from its contiguity to the Little Peak marked on all the maps of the Province), from its junction with the Waipori to its source in the Lammermoor ranges, a distance of about twelve miles.
By far the greater number however, were located at a spot about six miles north from the Waipori.
At this place the miners have succeeded in turning the creek, and are at the present time digging in this bed; which is formed of hard slaty substance, thickly impregnated with quartz, known as mica schist, immense blocks of which (running north and south) overhang the creek for nearly three miles.
The miners at this place appear to be doing remarkably well; I saw prospects varying from half a pennyweight to six pennyweights obtained from a tin dish, and in one instance, I saw the gold turned over with the corner of the shovel, from the interstices and layers of the mica schist.
Of the future of these diggings, I cannot venture to express an opinion; experienced miners with whom I conversed are, however, of opinion that the field would turn out to be a payable one.
I regret that this report is so meagre, but at the time of my visit the miners had only just settled down to work, having been hitherto delayed by the late floods, which have not only retarded their operations, but in some instances, been attended with large losses in the shape of valuable wash-dirt, swept away by the violence of the storms.
Among the miners the utmost order prevails; but one solitary dispute, as to the size of a claim in the bed of the creek, has as far as I could learn, taken place.
I have the honor to be, Your Honor's very obedient servant
ST. JOHN BRANIGAN, Commissioner of Police.
