LATEST NEWS FROM AUCKLAND AND THE THAMES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2417, 21 September 1868, Page 3

LATEST NEWS FROM AUCKLAND AND THE THAMES.

0 By the Alhambra, which arrived on Saturday, we have our Auckland, Nelson and Marlborough files. We give the more impoi - tant items of news. The New Zealand Herald of the 2nd instant estimates the quantity of gold now in the Auckland banks from the Thames is from 10,000 to 12,000 ounces. The breakdown in the case of Hunt's machine, and the wet weather, which has impeded the progress of mining works, amply accounts for the small quantity of gold. The amount exported this mouth will, therefore, not be as much as might have been expected. Nevertheless, those acquainted with the rough nature of the country at the Thames district will hardly be surprised even at the returns for the month, considering the frightful weather. Quartz nnd alluvial gold are said to have been found in the vicinity of Opotiki. That Rangariri will yet turn out a payable gold field, we (N. Z. Herald) have little doubt, if it only succeeds in obtaining a thorough trial; but there is even greater and speedier certainty of an extensive goldfield being opened up higher up the Waikato. The land belongs to the natives, but they are willing to throw it open to European enterprise. Exceedingly rich stone has been found at Matamata The N.Z. Herald says There is a population of 15,000 persons at the Thames, '['he grand future of the goldfield, and that which must be the most cheering to every one of us, is the fact that a population of fifteen thousand souls has found room for itself upon only the thirty-fourth porti >n of auriferous eountry thrown open for selection, and that there remains fully twice as much a iriferous country Bdjacent yet in the hands of the natives to be opened ere long to European enterprise. The country already opened comprises some 700 square miles, the area actually occupied by claims not more than between 15 and 16 square miles, while those occupying the area have faith in the permanency of the goldfield. The money invested in the purchase of portions of shares in claims already discovered, Auckland money principally, amounts to a sum of £80,000; the value of the permanent wooden buildings at the Thames is estimated at £50,000; and the machinery new erected, and in course of erection, has cost some £38,000. Such figures as these will prove what tbe Auckland people themselves think of (heir goldfield. A ton of quartz from one of the leaders in the Port Waikato Claim, Kurunui Hange, was crushed at the Kurunui Battery, and showed a yield of 5 oz 14 dwt of retorted gold. It was the intention of his Lordship the Bishop of New Zealand and Lichfield to proceed to the Bay of Tslnnds by the missionary schooner Southern Cross, on a pastoral visit to that district; the Bishop, however, found that a great amount of business lay before him, nnd that his stay in New Zealand being necessarily limited, would not admit of him vidting the Bay. The Southern Cross will therefore proceed direct to Norfolk Island, to bring Bishop Patteson. The Bishop of New Zealand contemplates a return to his diocese of Lichfield by the Suez mail, leaving Sydney at the end of October.