AUCKLAND.

Press, Volume II, Issue 50, 26 April 1862, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

As an expression of sympathy with our transatlantic brethren, the citizens of Auckland entertained the Captains of the whalers now in harbour, at a banquet, which was held on the evening of the 21st, at ths Odd Fellows' Hall; about eighty gentlemen were present, and there was a most commendable desire apparent in all to show a spirit of kindliness and good feeling towards their guests, and through them to the entire American nation. Captain James Nichols, the senior captain of the whaling fleet, has for the last 21 years been a visitor at this port from time to time, and the people of .duckland, with the respect and cordiality which they felt to this gentleman and his brother officers, were only too hapny that the late advices from home had enabled them to receive them as friends and not as enemies. From C'ororaandel we had little reliable information. Various reitorts, some of them evidently absurd, were promulgated early in the month—that gold in large quantities had been found—hut in no case could the truth of these statements, or indeed any plausible reason to account for their existance at all, he substantiated. The prospecting of those parties assisted by the Government subsidy continues, though from the increased number of persons who have not only left /luckland for'Coromandel, but who have arrived there from Otago, it seems that a further subsidy should be voted to carry'out the intentions of the Government, and fairly establish the fact of a payable gold held in the Coromandel district. It is not long since Mr. Ball stated in the Provincial Council, that the Government was in hopes of a speedy and favourable conclusion to a treaty, now being carried on between the Government and the native proprietors in that locality, for the alienation of laud at Coromandel, and on Tuesday, the 17th, we find that his Excellency sailed for Coromandel .n the Fawn, for the purpose, it was said, of facilitating by his presence and personal inliuence the arrangements which have been instituted for the extinction of the title not of a part, but of the whole of the land in the peninsula, <>f which Cape Colville is the northern point. Sir Geor-e Grey returned from his mission on the 22nd instant, and we are in a position to state, that though no purchase has hitherto been effected, an arangement which will throw open Paul's land—the much coveted block—is almost completed. A meeting of the diggers now working at Coromandel had been held at Tiki, on the 15th inst. ; a code of provisional regulations for their own local government had been agreed Since then the Suiwrintendent has returned from another visit to Coromandel, and we find that matters have begun to assume quite a different aspect. Cold in paying quantities has been found, and continues to be obtained by many parties. Workin" parties are distributed widely throughout the d, strict and t>'e miners themselves are either satisfied with their eamim'S, or confident, as the case may b;, of ultimate success. Sxty miners in the Flying Cloud had arrived in Coromande direct from <'tago on the 18th March, and were somewhat ane--;ddy surpnsed at the liberal manner in which they weie met by the Provincial Government, and are determined to . ive < •oromandel a fair trial, many of them declaring that they would be content to work in such a climate as that of this Province for a far less return than tiny would be willing

to remain for amid the snows and rains of the rigorous climate of Otago. Should these diggings, as no doubt they will, Ihj uninteruptedly ojiened to European enterprise, we must expect and pr< vide for the influx of a large body of immigrants. — Southern ('num.