COROMANDEL, OR THE CLUTHA?

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1720, 3 September 1862, Page 3

COROMANDEL, OR THE CLUTHA?

The schooners Lombard ami Dunedin arrived from Otago on Saturday morning—(lie former in nine, the latter in fourteen days. The Lombard is a very large fore and aft schooner, of the Caroline E. Foote class, and very like in appearance to that vessel ; she is Jioston built, of 250 tons register, has immensely taunt masts, shows a vast spread of canvas, and is fitted with deck houses, fore and aft, for the accommodation of crew and passengers. She is evidently a very powerful vessel, and likely to be a favourite passenger ship. In consequence of the discovery of the new diggings on the Clutha, immediately previous to her departure from Port Chalmers, she brought up but fifteen of sixty-three passengers booked, the remainder having forfeited their deposits ; she touched sit Coromandel, en route , and has been laid on for Otago for 'vvliicli place a rusli” is anticipated, no less than four ships—Lombard, Rebecca, Queen (steamer), and Queen of the North—being now on the berth. Gold-diggers, par excellence , arc a nomadic race, and here, at the present moment, to use a simile more pertinent than polite, between the Clutha and Coromandel they seem to be “like cats in a tripe shop, puzzled which to choose.” The incoming rush has hardly taken place when the cry of approaching exodus resounds ; and thus the see-saw between North and South is likely to bo carried on, until machinery shall have arrived to crush the Coromandel quartz, and so not only determine its true value, but transform it to a merchantable and circulating medium ; machinery of that kind, for Kevcn’s Quartz Reef Company, is now on board the ship Alfred Lemont, which sailed from Melbourne for Auckland and Coromandel, via Otago, on the 23rd August —the plant may, therefore, be immediately expected, and as preparations for fixing it have been carrying on at Coromandel for some time past, buPfew weeks are likely to elapse before it shall be in working order.