TE AROHA GOLDFIELD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5919, 5 November 1880, Page 3

TE AROHA GOLDFIELD.

I [FROM OUB OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Hamilton, Thursday. Mr. Sandes' coach returned last night fromTe Aroha. It would seem that while there are large numbers of persons on the ground, but few are engaged in active prospecting, being utterly demoralised by the action of the Government in not "proclaiming " the field. The publichouses, three in number, were full to overflowing, people considering themselves fortunate to get room for a shakedown on the floor with their own blankets, and the steamer was continually' coming and going between the Thames and the Waihou landing, taking many passengers both ways. Some very excellent stone was I shown to .our Hamilton visitors, but the utmost closeness was observed as to where it was found. A very discouraging, but palpably overdrawn, report of the new field, appears from the pen of a special of a local print, but as that Tvorthy never went nearer Te Aroha than Hautapu, no credence is given here to the statements it contains, the more especially as those who have visited Te Aroha from Hamilton within the past ten days, and those are not few, know them to be untrue. The .print in question, it is reported, has received its brief to decry the field, and is certainly doing its best in that direction. There can be no doubt that the explanation afforded by the Herald on Monday—that in the event of prospectors finding gold, their claim would on application be. protected—does not satisfy the digging mind; '• Again, there is great anxiety felt that the field when opened shall only be so to men holding claims under miners , rights, and that the ground shall not be leased for many months to come. It is essential that new goldfield prospecting should .be encouraged to the utmost, and to issue leases is to ensure that the ground will not be prospected to one-fiftieth the extent it would be if every acre occupied were bound to be worked without twenty-four hours' interval, except on Sunday, by so many men.