THE THAMES GOLDFIELDS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2523, 3 February 1869, Page 3

THE THAMES GOLDFIELDS.

[bt a recent visiior.l lii conparison with its extent, the Kuranui Creek has proved itself to be the richest on the field. Besides Hunt's and Barry's it contaius a large number of excellent claims, amongst which are the following: —the Deep Lead, the Eureka, Homeward Bound, All Nations, Long Drive, Kuranui Star, Pukehenau (in whicli gold-bearing leaders and two 'large reefs bearing N.K. by S.W. from Hunt's have been discovered), and Star of the West. The Golden Crown, I will describe presently. Tararu is the furthest creek from Shoitland. It contains a number |of promising claims, and I was informed that machinery would shortly be erected upon it. The Shellback, the next in order, has also some very good claims upon it, including the Beautiful Star, the Diamond, the Enterprise, the Halcyon, Paddy Mahoy, the Queen's, the Shellback Nos 1 and 2, the Siam, the Victoria, Shaw's Reef, and Thornton's. There is a good deal of machinery in this creek, and the erection of additional batteries is in contemplation. There are some capital claims in and around Wiseman's Gully on the Shellback, and the following are amongst the principal ones—the Dairy, the Heart-and-Hand, Pride of Erin, Johnny Groats, the Kentish, Magnum Bonum, Matakana, Shamrock Rose and Thistle, Port Waikato, Twinkliug Star, United Hands, Pride of Melbourne, Golden Fleece, and the Fairfield. We chanced to reach Wiseman's Gully while a very important ceremony was going on, namely, that of starting and naming a battery which had been erected there to the order of Mr Clarksou, of Hunt's claim. This battery consists of twelve head of stampers, driven by an engine of teu-horse power. It was much needed, and there is no doubt that Mr Ciarkson'B speculation will prove to be a most remunerative one. In and around Madman's Gully, on the Kuranui, there are .also some very payable claims. Foremost in the list are Dixon's Nos 1,2, and 3 (amalgamated,) It is in this claim that the goldbearing reef is supposed to commence. It can be distinctly traced as far as the Dairy Claim in Wiseman's Gully, from whence it is'supposed to spread out in rich leaders, running through the Siam, and those claims that adjoin it. The reef runs at an angle with Hunt's, which is to said bear north by southwest. A battery has been erected in the immediate neighbourhood of Dixon's. The other claims worthy of special mention in Madman's Gully are Eaton's No. 3, Wilson's, the Pride of the West, John o' Groats, the Rose and Shamrock, and the Black Angel. It was on a very hot day that we decided on going up the Moanataiara, which is the richest creek on the Thames goldfields. Proceeding along the tramway on the northern •brow of the creek, we were soon at the face of Tookey's, one of the many claims which now give promise of a good, permanent •yield. There is a- greater number of claims on the Moanataiara than on any other creek, and most of them are paying "well. For a long way up—indeed, nearly as far as tbe Punga, or, as it is more commonly •pronounced, the Bunga Flat—all the ground •is pegged off, and there are many good claims about the summit of the range. The principal claims on the Moanataiara include the Star of the North, Star of the South, Dawn of Hope, Whau, Balaa'rat Star, Bendigo Independent, Point-in-View, Okarita, Alburnia, Pride of the West, Balaarat, Clyde, Dauntless, Eureka, Kyber Pass, Middle Star, claim), Point Russell, Redan, Rhodes' and Carter's, Rose and Shamrock; and off Punga Flat—the Vale of Avoca, Mocking Bird, Harvest Home, Eldorado, North Devon, and the Kuby are claims which are turning out very well.

The Waiotahi is the next creek in order towards Shortland, and it can also, like the Moanataiara, boast of some excellent claims. Omitting for the present any mention of the Golden Crown and Mannkau claims, there are many which deserve to be noted on account of the handsome returns which they have afforded <to shareholders. These are, amongst others, •Mulligan's, the Eising Sun, the Shamrock, Break of Day, Balaarat, Armstrong's, the Great Republic (a battery is being erected ■here, near the head of the creek), the Fear Not, and the Parnell and Townley's claimssituated a very trifling distance up the creek. The ground comprised in these two claims is now worked by the Waiotahi Gold Mining Company. The Karaka Creek, which stands next in rotation, was the one on which the precious metal was first discovered. The ground has hardly turned out so well here as on the other creeks to the north, but although it contains fewer, there are some of the claims quite as payable as those in the Waiotahi, the Moanataiara, or the Kuranui, of course •excepting Hunt's, the GoMen Crown, the Manukau, Barry's, and a few others, that take first position on the field. The Pretty Jane has quite exceeded the expectations of its shareholders, In July last, a share could have been purchased for from £ls to £2O; now, I don't suppose ajshareholder would sell out for fifty times that amount. The Lucky Hit has fully justified the name that was given to it. This claim, taken up early last yeir, is situated almost at the head of the Creek, at a distance of two miles from Shortland Court-house. It is a prospecting claim, and consists of ten men's ground and eight shareholders. Some specimens obtained from it were crushed recently, and the returns were enormous. Machinery will shortly be erected specially f or this claim, The Greenstone, another claim which offer* good prospects, adjoins, while the Golden Eagle and the Strike-it-again are on a branch creek nearly opposite the Lucky Hit. There is another good claim known as Misaac's. which, I believe, has only been working for three months. Some very rich specimens have been tiken from it, The Blooming Rose, Epsom Rise, Happy-go-Lucky, Holtiansja, Independent, Lode Star, Lord Nelson, the Monster, (which is the prospectors' claim of this creek, held by ten men), Paisley Rose, the Old Prince Alfred, Albion, Kobert Burns, and Star of Onehmiga have nearly all turned out well.

There are fewer claims on the Hape than on any of the other creeks. The Lord Ashley, Pretty Nelly, Mount Pleasant, Tweed Side, Clyde, Dau O'Connell, Smith's, Royal Standard, Murphy's, Young May Moon, or Ueid Centre, Albion, Ben Lomond, and Portuguese, are all situated near the ■mouth of the creek. The Lord Ashley, which eontains eight men's ground, is the claim in which poor Von Tempsky worked for months and months, until, losing every penny that he was possessed of, he was obliged to abandon it. Since tnen, good gold has been struck, and the value of shares has been considerably enhanced. As yet, the leader is only some inches in thickness, but the shareholders are confident that their claim will shortly rank amongst the best on the field. It is deserving of remark that the shareholders have generously given an interest in their claim to Mrs Von Tempsky. The Tweed side is another claim which offers excellent prospects. They have strtick a

leader of considerable richness, and I saw some line specimens taken out on the morning of my visit to the claim. Some of the hands were employed in clearing a site for the erection of machinery. The leader from which the specimens I have referred to have been taken, is only two or three yards from the Lord Ashley, and it is expected to run into this claim, judging from its present bearing. From the Mount Pleasant and some of the adjoining claims good specimens have been taken. In this creek, the claims do not extend quite a mile from tho township.

We paid a special visit to the Golden Crown Claim, which is situated on the face of Tookey's Hill, and in which Mr Neville Walker, late of Canterbury, is a shareholder. This is one of the many claims which were pronounced " duffers" some months ago, an d now it in believed that it will surpass even Hunt's in richness. At one time shares could be purchased for only a few pounds, and it is a fact that not many months ago, Mr J.D. O'Keefe, tired of paying wages, was glad to obtain £5 for his share, at auction. Sinco striking the leader, I was assured that each full share represenled a clear profit of £SOOO. The claim has one great advantage over many others—it is so near the township of Tookey's Flat, that the stuff, falling from the shotover, used to infringe on the public thoroughfare, and it was found necessary to erect a fence. The manager, Mr Patrick Donnelly (one of the tew miners who had any success at Coromandel), was kind enough to show me all over the claim. Entering the drive, we proceeded in a half-bent position for a distance of 340 feet. Here we came to a couple of cross drives—one of 50 feet, leading to a shaft of a depth of 100 feet from the surface, and the other of 70 feet bringing us to where the leader was discovered. By (he aid of candles which we carried in our hand?, I was afforded a view of the leader and its extreme richness. Returning to the junction of the main and cross drives, we descended a " winz " of 70 feet, where a number of men were employed in " blocking out"—that is, extracting all the quartz, and, leaving the refuse behind, working up to the main level. At the bottom of this" winz," the leader measured eight feet in thickness, and the quartz was very thickly impregnated with gold. The stuff is hauled up in buckets from the bottom of the "winz," is then emptied into trucks, conveyed through the drive, and thrown down tho shotover, from whence it is carted to the battery, The shareholders were having their stuff crushed at Souter's battery, in Campbell street, and they were about to engage a set of stampers from the Kuranui company. The crushing for December returned 3500 ounces. The amount of timber required for the Golden Crown claim was enormous, and had it not been so near at hand, it would have cost a very large amount of money. The sides and ceilings of the drives and "winz " are well supported by means of stout spars, and the work of completing the drive must have been anything but easy or expeditious, for it must be borne in mind that no more than two men could work in the drive at the same time. The shareholders of the Golden Crown pay their men £3 a-week, and they earn every penny of their money when one considers the nature of their work and the foulness of the atmosphere in which it is carried on.

The Manukau adjoins the Golden Crown. In this a very rich leader has been opened up, and the returns from the crushings have been very large. As was the case with the Golden Crown, shares were scarcely quoted some months ago; indeed tbe claim had been abandoned several times and taken up again before the leader was struck. It is proper to observe that the quartz-veins containing gold are only a few inches thick in the majority of the claims at the Thames. They are met with in almost every claim, but their direction is so eccentric, and their duration so variable, that hardly any dependence can be placed on them. This is how shares are so highly quoted one week, and at a discount the week after.

A great number of the claims on the Thames goldfleld are worked by companies, many more of which are in course of formation. Although a considerable increase has taken place within the past two or three months, the machinery now at work is very far from being sufficient for the requirements of the field. There are hundreds of claims up the creeks which have tons upon tons of good, promising stuff ready for crushing, but it cannot be crushed until machinery is erected in their vicinity, or until such time as it can be brought down to the batteries at present in operation. The Provincial Government contemplates the formation of tramways up the Oetks, and as an evidence of its intention, has forwarded a quantity of the sleepers and rails to Shortland which were imported originally for the Auckland and Drury railway, bo soon as these works are completed, and the stuff from the outlying claims is brought down the creeks to be crushed, people will be in a better position to form an opinion as to the payableness and permanency of the Thames goldfleld. At the present time, there are only two batteries on the Hape Creek, and one of these was hardly completed when I w,as there. A good deal of machinery is situated on the flat ground lying between Graham's Town and the Kuranui. Souter's and Graham's batteries are in close proximity to each other in Graham's Town, and beyond these are Goodall'B, the Kuranui, and another extensive concern in course of completion by Messrs Cruickshank, Smart, and Co. Altogether, there are about five-and-forty machines on the field, ranging from four to twenty head of stampers each.

The charge for crushing is twenty-five shillings a ton, and then there is an extra charge to be incurred for carting the stuff. This varies in proportion as the distance extends between the claims and the batteries. But as machinery increases, the charges for crushing will, of course, undergo reduction. In the month of December last, an order was sent to the Langland's Foundry, Melbourne, for machinery to the value of £IO,OOO. I endeavoured to ascertain the quantity of gold that had been exported from the Thames Goldfields since they were opened, but was unable to procure definite information. Some idea may be formed of their yield from the fact that the Siam, which sailed from Auckland for England last month, had on board 23,011 ounces.

'i he price of gold varies very much on the Thames. Hunt's is reckoned as being the most inferior on the field, hut the enormous quantity which the claim has turned out more than makes up for its inferiority. Some gold sells at £3 15s, and I heard of a parcel bringing £3 17s 10£ d, but the average value of Thames gold is £2 12s 6d an ounce. The Banks are almost always willing to advance £2 10s upon it. Disappointment is the lot of many on the Thames. I know several who have been working hard for a long time, and have not got the colour of gold, but they work on in the hope that they will strike a leader. Many poor fellows deny themselves proper nourishment in order that they may be enabled to hold their ground. To meet cases in which men have worked hard for months at their claims, and are now so "hard up" that they cm stand it no longer, the Warden will register their claims for three months in order that thty may go on as wages men, and save up in the interim as much as will enable them to resume operations in their own claims when the'three months have expired. No less than 1300 claims were registered for the three months ending the 31st of January last. The system of "jumping " was very much in vogue in the early days of the gohlfield, but the Warden has Bet his face strongly against it, except in cases where the shareholder is grossly in fault. Before, the meanest advantages were taken, and it not unfrequently happened that one shareholder who had a " down " on another, would oust him the very moment the regulations were infringed, by placing some '' pet" of his own on the ground. The miners, as a rule, are averse to the practice of "jumping," and as the mind of the Warden is of a like tendency, Mr Broad gives pretty genernl satisfaction to those working on the field. On the other hand, he is decidedly against " shepherding," and all who desire to see the field developed to its fullest extent, will admit that lie is quite right in discouraging a system which means nothing more or lesß than the shutting up of a portion of the diggings.

Those who have been on a goldfleld—indeed I might say thoso even who have never been there—do not require to be told of the very mixed character of the population that is to be met with, and I don't suppose that on tho whole, Shortland is an exception in this respect. But for the ordor that is maintained, I think it will compare more than favourab'y with other diggings in New Zealand and a ustrnlia. To my mind, the miners on tho Thames are, as a rule, as orderly and unobtrusive a lot of men as one could meet with in any community, I candidly confess to having entertained pro-conceived notions of diggers and the life which they led beyond their claims, but these were completely dispelled after five or six days' observation and inquiry, Going about from claim to claim, and from one tent to another, 1 was enabled to judge of them in two important phases of character. In the claims—remember Ido not speak of wages men, at all events of the most of them the miners were, as a whole, extremely hard working, while in their tents they were cheerful, kind to one another, and courteous to strangers; their conversation was not of that offensive character which diggers generally get the credit of indulging in by people who do not know them, nor did i ever witness any of those excesses of which a diggings only is said to be the scene. Of course there are exceptions, but these are comparatively few in number. 'I he majority of the miners are single men, and live together in parties of from two to eight. Many of those who are married have got their wives and families on the field, so convinced are they of its permanence.

To conclude my account of the Thames goldfleld—and I trust that I shall receive credit for having written it in an entirely impartial spirit —I muse candidly tell my readers that Shortland is no place for the p'lor man to go to. There are many who would like to get back to the places they left, if thry could only manage to do so. A man may go to the Thames with £5 or £lO in his pocket, but even this amount wiil be of little service to him. There is no other source from which he may hope to obtain employment except as a wages' man on a claim at 30s a week, and he will be very lucky if he gets work to do in this way. That the Thames goldfields will be permanent, and that Shortland, Grahamstown, and Toukey's Flat will yet be united in one large township, I haven't the remotest doubt, but it will be no place for the needy man to go to. The field will be developed, not by those who are even now working upon it, but by large companies whose combine!! capital will enable them to import the machinery that is wanted so much, and to carry out the work of quartz mining on a more extensive scale. To intending speculators, I would venture this piece of advice; It is true that, like many others, you might invest two, orthree,orfivehundred pounds in such a manner that the £SOO might in a few months swell itself out to three or four times that amount. But, then, you know the risks that you will run, You must know what a lottery goldfleld speculation is, and the chances which you iucur of dropping your money. However, if you are bent on speculating in shares, take my advice and beware of specimens; don't be led away by such things as these, but go to the claim which you desire to invest in and judge for yourself. All the while, however, you may sink your money in a "duffer," and you may invest in a claim that will make you a rich man. Such a thing as bringing good specimens from one claim to exhibit on a " duffer" for the purpose of advancing the shares, has been done on the Thames, and hundreds have been lost in this way, especially while the " share mania," lasted. Therefore, 1 would say to the intending speculator—above all things, beware of specimens. The opening of the Upper Thames is looked forward to with much anxiety, as it is the general belief—on what this belief is founded I cannot say—that alluvial gold will be found in at least two creeks. Certain it is that there' is no alluvial gold at Shortland, but thin is no reason that there should not be any at Ohinemuri. Between 200 and 300 diggers are already up there, anxiously waiting until the field is proclaimed, I was informed would occur early in the current month. Some people may ask why it is the diggers don't rush the place, but if they were conversant with the feeling of the Natives, and the position whiih the Upper Thames bears to the isolated settlements of the Waikato, they would commend the miners for the patience which they manifest, rather than be surprised at their hesitancy. If any one should go to Shortland from Canterbury, I would strongly recommend him not to leave until he has visited the Upper Thames. The steamer Clyde runs up to Ohinemuri two or three times a week, according as inducement offers, and ten shillings is no extortion for a return ticket.

I was nearly forgetting to say that the population of the Thames is variously estimated. As an individual opinion, I think 15,000 or 16,000 will be the outside estimate. Of this number, there are about 6000 miners, including wages men and working shareholders. J. 6.