The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, SEPT. 7, 1867. THE THAMES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1191, 7 September 1867, Page 3

The New Zealand Herald

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, SEPT. 7, 1867. THE THAMES.

SFECTHHUR AGENDO, '* Give every man thine ear, hnt few thy voice : Take each man's oenstire, but reserve thy judgment. Tills all, —To thine own self be true And it ronst follow, as tho night the day. The a o&nzt not then bfl false to auy nun."

Oun Correspondent's letter of yesterday's date is reassuring, The quartz claims, it seems, are on all hands admitted to be rich, richer in fact than the most sanguine anticipated. Capital, however, and experienced reefers are both required to work them. Doubtless, tho reefing capitalists of Melbourne will largely occupy the Thames G-old-ficld bye and bye, but we really think with our correspondent tkafc Auckland men, being as they tiro, upon tho spot, Bhould avail themselves of tho first chance. There are crushiug machines at Coromandel and elsewhere. Now, the owners of these might advance their own interest, the interests of tho holders of claims on Hunt's reef, and the interests of the Province very materially by taking these machines to the Thames, and setting them up upon some of the proved rich claims, on conditions to be agreed upon; the machinery to count as worth so much in the "share of tho claim, whether a third, a-half, or two-thirds, as the case may be. Do wo want evidenco of the richness of the stone ? All that is required is to look into Mr. Beck's shop window. There may be seen two ingots of gold, 10 oz. and 12 dwts. in weight, extracted from the picked specimens of quartz, contained in only one of the sixteen bags of quartz, sent down from No. 1 claim, Hunt's reef, a week ago. The bag contained not more than sixty -pour, us of quartz. Two-thirds of the quantity was crushed by hand in a peßtle and mortar, and the produce was nearly one pound weight of gold. The other fifteen bags of quartz are of just an average quality as that taken in hand by Mr. Beck. The stone, too, was not carofullv taken from tho reef. The leaders and the casing were knocked down hurriedly and mixed together, and much of tho stone contained in the sixteen bags is not auriferous at all. The reason of this was as follows. The reef is on tho very boundary of the field proclaimed. The natives, hearing of the richnoss of the stone, suddenly made a claim that Hunt's party had marked off their claim beyond the proclaimed goldfield. Hunt and his mates were fearful of losing the claim, and a dozen men wero hastily got together to save what gold they could. The reef, as yet, had been unworked. Up the face of the rock the leaders could be seen n height of twelve feet, and tho breadth of about two inches, each running parallel about two feet apart. The men went to work at the face of the rock with such tools as they had, picking out an adit some thirty inches wide, so as to take both leaders and the non-auriferous stone between the two, Tho whole was mixed together, and hence the yield will only be some 250 ounces to the ton instead of over a thousand ounces to the ton, as it would have been had the adit been made at leisure, and the leaders been carefully taken down and kept to themsolves. "Wo are glad, however, to say, that the Maoris abandoned their claim, and that the diggers are in undisturbed possession. There are, howover, other reasons which satisfactorily prove to us that the Thames Gold 3?ield is a success. There has been no rush back from it. This is more than can bo said of any diggings yet opened. In Victoria, in Otago, in "Westland, the rush was succeeded by a large exodus of unsuccessful and grumbling malcontents. "We recollect having heard the first explorers of Eagle Hawk gully on the Bendigo pronounce it a duffer on their return. Yet no richer gully was ever worked on that rich alluvial diggings. It was the same with the Ovens. The writer of this article, journeying up from Melbourne to the Ovens soon after the first rush to it i had taken place, was met by thousands —

yes, thousands returning, v/lio spoke of it as a " storekeeper's swindle." Yet it proved a ricli and permanent diggings. Kaueranga, though it has sent us little gold to prove its wealth, can at least boast that those who have rushed to it remain there, and are satisfied, and this, too, at the most unpropitious season of the year. Prom private sources we also learn that which confirms our belief in tho value and stability of the Thames goldfield. The West-land miners there are writing to their mates at tlie "West Coast gold-fields to leave their claims thero and come up to the Thames. This speaks volumes. Our cotemporary yesterday published a large amount of trash from the G-rey River papers, evidently written to prevent the miners from leaving West;]and. We don't blame our Westland cotemporaries ; doubtless they would be sorry to see the West Coast comparatively deserted for the Thames, but we blame our cotemporary for republishing such trash without a word of comment. We have a lively recollection that when auriferous quartz was first found in Coromandel, he pronounced it "therichest " gold-field in the Southern Hemisphere." Has he not one little word to say now in defence of Kaueranga and the Thames ? The writers in the G-rey River papers seem, however, to be overshooting the mark, and any intelligent reader may see that they are purposely writing to save themselves from being left without advertisers and readers. Facts are twisted and misrepresented to serve-a purpose, and so clumsily that the cheat can be easily discovered. Truth is great and will prevail, and if the Thames gold-field can be opened without a rush, why all the better for Auckland, even though it bo done more slowly than otherwise. We shall for one thing save the introduction of a very objectionable class which always follows on a rush, as camp suttlers follow the steps of an • army, and we who are on the spot will at least have the best chance of profiting by the discoveries of rich reefs as they are found. We seriously advise the owners of quartz crushing machines to render them at once available, if arrangements can possibly be made with the owners of claims which been satisfactorily proved to be rich, and refer our readers for fuller information to the letter of our Thames correspondent