The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1567.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1210, 1 October 1867, Page 3

The New Zealand Herald

AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1567.

SFJfiCTKMUB AGENDO, " Give every man thino ear, but few thy volco : Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. Thle all, —To thine own eolf be true A nd it moat follow, as tbo night the day, Tho a cauet not then te false to any man."

Ojte hundred and fifty-seven ounces of gold, sent up on Sunday night by the steamer Midge from Barry's claim on the Kuranui reef, and something like five hundred ounces of gold obtained from Tookey's claim, upon Tookey's reef, is evidence, we should think, which will set at rest any doubt which persons at a distance may have as to the paying nature of the Thames goldfield. It lias been said by such persons that the best evidence of a goldfield is the production of gold. Here, then, is the evidence asked for.

From 6 cwt. of stone, taken from Hunt's claim (No 1) on the Kur.mui reef, there were extracted some 68 ounces of gold, and now from Barry's (No. 2) claim on the same reef, no less than 157 ounces are sent up to town. Prom Tookey's reef we have not yet the precise yield.' Two and' a half tons of quartz had been sent to Coromandel to be crushed, and, at the sailing of the last vessel from that port, the amalgam was not yet all cleaned, but, it was said, some 400 ounces of gold had;been up to that time cleaned, and it was expected that the yield of the 2-k tons would be about 500 ounces of gold. That Hunt's claim has riot sent up further parcels of gold is simply owing to a break drown in the Berdan machine which Mr. Hunt took up with him a fortnight ago. But for this, untoward event, the claim would have continued to. yield as rich and steady a return as did the 6 cwt. crushed in town since the stone is there as rich as ever. In Barry's claim, too, they have but lately had a Berdan machine to work, but the party state that they expect to. send up 300 or 400 ounces more in about 14 days. The Cross's report of yesterday is incorrect as to the amount of gold sent up. Messrs. Hays and Grant lodged it in the Bajak of New Zealand, where an account has been opened by the claimholders. The Bank gave them credit for 157 ozs. 6 dwts. About 3 ozs. will have to be returned, as it had not been sufficiently cleaned.

Now, Hunt's, Barry's, and Tookey's claims are not by any means of so excep tional a character as some might suppose. | But the two former possess small machines with which the richer stone can bo crushed, and Mr. Tookey has a cutter of his own by which he can convey stone from his claim at the Thames to . C'oromandel, and being an old trader at the latter, place, naturally avails himself of advantages which others? arb ; not so ready to do. There is a strong prejudice amongst the miners against sending quartz to Coromandel to be crushed —a foolish one we believe—but nevertheless such feeling exists. This being the case, it is clear that it will be. to the interest of all parties that machinery should, go to the Thames, as the quartz -will not be sent from there: Messrs. Praser & Tinne have undertaken to erect a set of stampers at a cost of £700 and to crush quartz at the rate of, we believe,2ss. per ton. This,however, will not anything like meet the requirements of the" district.. On all hands we hear of large quantities of stone being piled up ready for the time when machinery shall have been erected. But this is not all. From the manner in which the majority of the claims are situated, the stone can be got out far quicker from, any one claim than a powerful machine, can crush it. The broken nature of the ground allows the miner, in numbers of cases, to tap the reef far down. He. puts a drive in from the gully below, ! and has hundreds or thousands of tons of,

stone febove this level. Sometimes he puts in two or three levels, one above the other, and. Sb is enabled to get out an immense body of stone. "When we state that in round uumbera about twenty auriferous reefs have been already discovered, within a space of about three square miles, those acquainted with quartz-reefing will not only understand the requirements for crushing machinery which such a district will need, but will see that the fortunate ! prospectors at the Thames have stumbled at the very outset of the adventure upon a veritable reefer's paradise. Of course when we speak of the work which such a district will afford to crushing machines, we speak of it as being properly worked b/ tho claimholders. This is not now the case. Indeed it cannot be, for there are upon this score of reefs, as an old Victorian assured us on Saturday, claims for fully 10,000 men. The gold is there but the men are not. It is not likely, however, that this state of things can long continue, and the system of one of each party holding a full eight men's claim on six or eight different reefs, or on different parts of the same reef, will have to give place to a more healthy state of things. They are simply held now on speculation, but Auckland meu, once bitten by working shareholders at Coromandel, will be twice shy at the Thames, and new arrivals 011 the goldfields will soon put the legal ownership of such claims to the test of Mr. . Warden Baillie's decision.

But the most astonishing fact relative to this goldfield is that all these reefs, auriferous as proved to an astonishing degree, have been found -within so small an area. Surely we may be justified in hoping that when the only portion as yefc prospected has turned out so rich in reefs there will be found hundreds of square miles equally productive. Tho truth is that as yet Shortland is the head-quarters of the miners, aud most of the prospectors starting from thence, go no further back than they can reach and return from by sundown. Tho country is rugged and covered with dense bush and undergrowth, and henco tho little distance in • any direction to which it has been pierced by prospectors. Add to this the fact that there are claims enough discovered on auriferous reefs within a

closo distance to the township for about ton times as many men as there are altogether miners upon the gold-field, and it will be easily understood why so much country that has been opened by th<> Maoris remains as yet a terra incognita. "What the Thames wants is men and machinery, especially tlio latter. Numbers of men with rich claims are literally Bitting idle for want of the means at hand to get the stone crushed if they had it out, living on upon the produce of the richest specimens, wluch they handcrush. It is the want of machinery, we repeat, which is causing the Thames gold-field to be developed so slowly, and in this respect we believe Auckland capital might find profitable and safe scope for investment. To buy sleeping sbares iu claims few who have Coromandel experience will venture upon, however rich the claims may be into which they may buy. The proper time for. that will come when claims become established under the Joint Stock Companies Act. At the present time> however, there is room for private enterprise in the matter of machinery. The very character of the country will render it difficult, if not impossible, for any one machine to serve a great number of claims, and even at the present Sme there is room for four or five powerful crushing machines, which could not, in the slightest degree, interfere with each other, even if there were not employment for all "We are anxious to see such machines erected, for without them the Thames goldfield will remain as now, something like a rich section of land to a man who has neither team nor plough to turn it over with, but who drags out a mere subsistence with the spade to his own loss and to that of the country as well. "We would however like- to see Auckland men profit by these gold-fields and Auckland capital reaping the chief benefit. The rich yields which have been taken from these reef claims and which will doubtless be kept up, caunot fail to bring "Victorian and New South Wales capital, more especially the into the Thames. Now is the time of Auckland's opportunity in this matter, and probably, at the present, such machinery might be erected in positions where paying claims could yet be procured by its owners, on which they could be employed in crushing stone of their own when not otherwise engaged. As we said, however, there is room for so many claims on the«e reefs th.at they must necessarily keep going a very laarge number of machines. Gradually the field will become much more thickly populated as it gets to be known that the gold m these reef claims is as quickly struck as in alluvial sinking, and, with the exception of the crushing, is as easily worked. It is'" a peculiarity in the Thames xeefs which will soon become understood. Meantime if th'e miners at the Thames really wish for machinery we seriously advise them to follow Mr. Tookey's example, and take, if they will not send their quartz to Coromandel. The whole expense will not amount to more than £3 per ton as we have shown elsewhere, and surely the owners of quartz, such as that taken from half a score claims we could mention, and samples of which we have seen, however short they may be of cash could obtain advances on such a. prospect that would enable them to meet any expense. They would too be permitted to take such part in the crushing of the quartz and cleaning of the gold as to emsurc thesn every particle contained in what they might take to Coromandel. Let a few n: tore claims send stone to Coromandel, and pr ove that it contains even a tenth part of th e gold in it that the stone from Tookey's reef does, and we will warrant them they w ill not be long without machinery at tho Thames, or we much mistake the love of dividends which the owners of such machinery in Victoria are said to possess. We learn that within the last few days orders have bee>n sent to Sydney for a large stamping machine for the Thames. This is not- as w ; e would have it. We have iron foundries here, the proprietors of which can mike and -burn, out as complete machinery as can be manufactured in Sydney or any oth or of the Australian colonies. "Wo not only think that Aucltland Icapital should assist in developing the goldfield at the Thamt is by supplying the necessary machinery, but we think also that in •doing so .it shoi lid employ Auckland mechanics and Aui jkland "tradesmen in the jmakiDg of Buch n jachinery.