A DIGGER’S OPINION OF THE THAMES GOLD-FIELD.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 47, 25 November 1867, Page 294

A DIGGER’S OPINION OF THE THAMES GOLD-FIELD.

TJijj?ee this heading the Southern Cross publishes the .following It seems strange that, among so large & population as that now scattered over the Thames diggings, so few men (special correspondents alone - excepted).can be found endowed with sufficient fortitude or. presumption to give the public an account of their success or failure during their sojourn on the gold-fields. More thaa one reason cap be assigned for this silence on the part of the unsuccessful digger. He has perhaps exhausted all his means in fruitless endeavors to find gold, and he knows that any narrative of the hardships he endured, or the losses he incurred, would, have no effect in dissuading others from running the same race of toil and disappointment. Moreover, he has heard the few individuals, who have dared to doubt the truth of unprecedented strikes, as the worst enemies of Auckland. No man wishes to incur the blame of injuring his country, though it be only an adopted one; hence, many, who cannot exactly comprehend how the general prosperity of the province is to be promoted by suffering a small section of the community to enrich themselves at the expense of the multitude, yet remain silent and passive. Another, and perhaps a stronger reason for the reticence of the disappointed hundreds whom you fall across in the course of a few days’;stay in Shortland Town, is the deplorable fact that they have spent their last shilling, and must depend on credit for supplies to enable them to continue their labours, while they entertain any hope of those labours meeting with even the shadow of a recompense That credit is only to be'obtained from storekeepers in the township, and is most easily obtained by such as affirm confidently that, so far as they have worked, their claims have yielded evidence of wealth sufficient. to determine them to perse vere while they can procure a day’s food. ' ’ .

It is a maxim, Mr Editor, “ Truth is not always to be told,” and I believe in some instances that this adage is true. But when the concealment of truth has a tendency to deceive our fellowmen, to lure them on in the pursuit of imaginary good on the same path that we have trodden ourselves, and which we are convinced by dearbought experience must end in distress and disappointment, then concealment becomes justly criminal, and no sound moralist could acquit us of being accomplices in the evil which a timely warning from us might have prevented. The mariner who has lost his ship on some unknown rock, will ascertain its latitude and longitude, and lay down its bearing to warn other navigators frointakingthe same course; and, if the example of the honest tar were followed but by: one; out; of .every hundred of the adventurers who have been , shipwrecked on the Thames reefs, it would have silenced the audacious puffers, whose exaggerated reports - of rich strikes have deluded thousands of credulous victims into a trap from which they cannot extricate themselves* having, in military phrase, consumed on. ,the . advance the whole of their supplies, whereas they ought to have reserved an adequate portion for their retreat. Before my arrival at the Thames, I Hiay inform you, Mr “Editor, that I have had some years’ practice' as a digger, not only in most of the goldfields of New Holland, but in those of the-Southern provinces of New Zealand. 1 I-have spent, two months; at the Thames, occupied iu digging the whole of the time.' I have tested the tills ‘ in many ~ places;- -but without meeting any recompense for my pains. I have frequently examined other men’s claims, . even some of those extolled for their richness; without being able to see any of those rich specimens . which are said to be so abundant. - After: a > fortnight’s trial of the so* called goldfield, I was' so thoroughly . satisfied 3 , of ' the: uncertainty of my finding a; payable claim that, I should 'haye.deftKbntifprthe hope thht detained >hiihdr(Bds ‘'as:welL: as SuperintendentwouldrOnhißarriyal* succeed,in. inducing the natives of the the

quitted the diggings and. resumed their wonted' occupations, had ! not f Mr Mackay posted up a notice expressive of his belief that he would be able to throw open large tracts of land to the north and. south of Shortland Town in a few day?. By a few days, men generally understand some period short of a week: it is now a fortnight since that notide \yas published,.and his premise has not been ’ performed. ’Tis true he ..started-for the Manaia about a; week ago, attended by a number of favoured prospectors, intent, no idoul),fc, on securing the likeliest claims “for themselves before the block should be thrown open to the public, although some of them are shareholders in the best reefs that have, been yet dis covered here. The caution exhibited by you, Mr Editor, in giving publicity, to the enormous fictions that have been swallowed by some of your contemporaries, has, in some measure, checked the headlong rush that "would otherwise have taken j place. However, despite the warnings of various correspondents through your columns, a sufficient number of deluded men have found their way to Shortland Town to swell the chorus of general disappointment that one hears now re-echoed on all sides in his prospecting excursions. Notwithstanding the daily reports that are circulated of rich reefs being found, it is well known that there are not more than eight claims yet found that will repay the expense of working them: say that 12 or 20 men, at the outside are sufficient to work each of these claims, and then you can form a correct estimate of the number who are getting paid for their labour out of the 4,000 men who are now scattered over this district.—l am, &c., John Fitzgerald. Shortland Town, Nov. 9, 1867.