The New zealand Herald. AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1868.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1314, 1 February 1868, Page 4

The New zealand Herald.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1868.

srKOTKMn; aokn'dd. " Oive even- man tliine em-, l»it fi'-w Hiy voice ; 1':i!«' cacli lii/iii's fi'iismv. l>at rvservo tliy jutlgmunt. ■J'liin ~l,i,vf nil,—To tliine own s; If In- true Anil it must follow, as tlie nijilit the (lay, Thou i-anst lint then l)f falso to any man."

Six inoiit'ifj' working "t t!ie Thames- goldfield has show I?, that Auckland, while able to find the men to work the claims, must after nil call in the assistance of Aiistralia

to furnish her with machinery. Week after week have the miners at the Thames been waiting for efficient machinery, and as yet have they waited in vain. Some sis thousand men, it is estimated, are now working in the Thames district—thousands of tons of auriferous quartz, in which gold is more or less to be seen, lie waiting for the machinery to crush them — while thousands upou thousands of tons could be rapidly got out from the claims were there any prospect that the stone already out would be crushed. Experienced miners visit the field and pronounce ifc to be the richest reefing country they have ever seen, either in Australia or California; rich stono may be seen in scores of claims, yet j the spirit of dulneas prevails; none can pronounce the " open sesame" which shall unlock the treasure hid within the matrix stone.

Some half dozen attempts have been made to erect machinery, yet we dare not say that in more than one or t\vo instances has tho attempt been satisfactory as yet. We have clever mechanics, firstclass iron foundries, and the machines turned out may be, as far as they go, of first-class workmanship, but those who make them do not understand the prin- : *%>!<> onwliiot flip, gold is to be saved. Some ( little flaw perhaps vitiates tko whole working of the machine. In one case we hear that certain boxes being made of pieces of wrought iron clamped together "gave" with the working of the machine, and let out the amalgam ; in another that the foundation was defective ; generally that the gold is not saved to the satisfaction of the miners. There have been cases in which stone known to be rich, in every piece almost of which gold could be seen, had been put through in quantities varying from two cwt. to as many tons, and the result has been either most trifling, or, in some cases, actually nothing at all. In the case of one-and-a quarter tors of picked rich stone crushed at j :.ne of , ' i/bs irincLijies, tho return was actually j v.il. On tli? niher hand, we learn that men j TV!tli tin disLr:3 employed in washing the • t.ulr-igs froiji another machine were earning j twelve shi!!i:'ga per day. Indeed, if anything wereneededto prove th eun sati sfaetory char acter oi the machinery now at the Thames, it may be found in tho incident narrated by us the other day, in tvhich a man desirous of selling a share in a claim placed four ounces of gold along with a ton of stone to make sure of his customer. The result of the crushing gave one a-half ounces only, and the man, chagrined at the loss of both gold and customer, turned round upon the machinist, and, acknowledging his attempt at fraud, abused the inefficient machinery as the cause of his double loss. This is no diggings' tale but a veritable and well authenticated fact, and speakse volumes. But, howover, we need not enlarg upon tho scarcity of efiicient machinery at the Thames. The miners are perfectly aware of the state of the case, and so indeed is the public generally. The greater portion of the gold obtained has been the result of Eerdan crushing, and only the richest stone is crushed. The tenacity with which the miners have clung to their claims, hoping almost against hope, looking for the announcement by every mail that Sydney or Victoria was coming to their rescue with suitable machinery and experienced men to work it, is most commendable. Yet even this endurance cannot for ever. Some claim-holders have managed to hold out by obtaining the use of a Berclau for a few hours to crush picked stone, others again have parted reluctantly with sleeping portions of their shares to persons in Auckland, and others who had some little capital to commence with still hold out,living on little more than bread and water —held up by the expectation that the time must come, when machinery will be available. Taking the population at 6000, and the return as, at the most, SOOOozs. per month, and reckoning, as we must, that the largest portion of this gold comes from a few immensely rich { claims, it stands to reason that tht> miners | are not supported by the gold they get. But this leads to another view of the case and demonstrates clearly enough that the character of the Thames reefs has not been over rated, and that there is something beyond tlie immediate getting of a little gold wliich is keeping a population of over 7,000 persons steadily hanging onto the Gold-field. That something is the quartz itself. Claim after claim strikes the stone, and the gold in the stone, visible to the naked eye, proves the value of the discovery. Yet, except in solitary instances, where the gold is in sufficient- quantity to bring the stone within the term kuown by diggers as " specimens," the auriferous quartz is not convertible into money. It needs the machinery, and the machinery is wanting. This is just the position of the Thames gold-field, and this extraordinary, and we make bold to say sin- ' gular position for a gold-field, explains the fact that for six months past a steady rush culminating in. a population of over 7,000 persons, has set in to the Thames, and that :uot once during that period was there a rush back again. Men ge: little or no gold, but they are satisfied ts remain. They live as we have said, in the hope that capital will in its natural course flow in, where opportunity for profitable investment presents itself.

And it docs seem a most singular circumstance, that for six months so large a body of men occupying claims which are known to be, verv many of them extremely rich and ! most of them presenting prospects which, did they exist in Victoria, or New .South Wales, would create a perfect sensation of excitement, should be lel't unassisted in working them. Aiere was an opening for capital, which wo most certainly thought would have been, eagerly caught at by t, e owners of machinery, and ether experienced persons in. Australia. And we did not hesitate to incite the people of Auckland to step forward quickly before they were left in the rear by their enterprising Australian neighbors. In the matter of machinery, however, our Auckland men are not it seems equal to the special requirements of the case. The best workmen and engineers, if they are only theoretically acquainted with the character of iiiu work to which the. machinery is to be put, can scarcely be expected u> master the diflieullr at once—and the circumstances of the case -will not admit of delay. While the machinist is acquiring j perfection in the particular knowledge re"quired, the miner is being starved out. As wo Hiafed when commencing these remarks. Auckland Las done her share at; the Thames. Her men have proved beyond

doubt or contradiction the extraordinary -wealth and extent of the quartz reefs at \h.Q Thames. To Australia we must look to complete the work. Were fiftv first-class machines created at the Thames to-morrow, the very result of their working would be that within a month they would necessitate the erection of as many more. The getting out of stone is not proceeded with, simply for the reason that the men see no means of getting it crushed. iTet while this state of things prevails here, machinery must, in. numbers of eases, be lying unuse din thesister colonies.