THE AUCKLAND GOLDFIELDS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 514, 8 October 1868, Page 3

THE AUCKLAND GOLDFIELDS.

We are permitted to make the following extracts from a very interesting letterj dated from Auckland, 20th September, and written by an old Wakatip resident (now endeavoring to better his fortunes at the Thames Goldfields) to a gentleman of this town: —

I have been* to the Thames and return again to-morrow. It is a wonderful place. The sides of the hills seem to be full of auriferous quartz; there is no regular reef, but every, spur seems to containj innumerable leaders, all containing gold. My own idea is that they are not leaders, but the remains of a gigantic reef which has been split up and pulverised by volcanic agency. There are about 10,000 people at the Thames. A great many of the claims are " protected," waiting for means to erect machinery, and for roads to be made to enable them to get quartz down to the machines. The Provincial Government have no money to anything with, and the General Government will not, I suppose, move in the matter until the question of the Provinces is settled. This wretched system of a double government is slowly ruining the country, by retarding progress and settlement. There is only one cure, and that is to kill Provincialism right out. Every kind of industry will languish while the taxes go to support a swarm of Provincial officers. The town of Shortland is situated at the mouth of the Thames River, and is distant a mile-and-a-half frcm Grahamstown—the latter being also on the coa6t, but further round the frith of the Thames River. The two places are really one, as the houses have extended all the way. The Warden's Court sits every day, and the best lawyers in Auckland attend. Sometimes as many as four or five counsel are retained.

I am not prepared yet to give an opinion as to the probability of the place lasting any length of time, but as far as one can judge from a cursory glance, there seems to be every chance of a good permanent field. Several steam engines are at work, but the quartz batteries are not very powerful, and I think the means employed for saving the gold very defective. " Hunt, the Lucky" is building a very fine battery, and our old friend Perry has brought a machine over, and is about to erect it at Tapu, a place 16 miles from Shortland. There has, of course, been a lot of rash speculation in shares and building allotments. Some have made money; many will lose it. What we want at present is boa.ds. I will write you more fully when I have seen more of the country. Living is cheap, but it is of no use any miner coming who has not a couple of hundred to the fore.