THE GOLDFIELDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 5977, 13 January 1881, Page 6

THE GOLDFIELDS.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENTS.] Graiiamstown, Wednesday. . Gold Returns. — Caledonian Company, llozs. 12dwts.; Luck's-All Company, 220z5.; Prince Imperial tribute, Sozs. lOdwts.

Caledonian. — The newly - appointed manager of this mine has been testing some of the lodes in the mine, and from these trial parcels llozs. 12dwts. of melted gold-have been obtained. The results, howevei , , are not very satisfactory, as none of the parcels proved payable.

Lctck's-All.—A crushing of three loads of general stuff, with some 201bs. of picked stone, has been completed for this company for the excellent return of 22ozs, of melted gold. The whole of the quartz crushed waa broken out previous to the late manager giving up the charge of the mine, anc l was mainly obtained from the brown.leader.,

Prince Imperial.—Scanlan . and, ■ parity, tributers in tliis mine, have completed a small erasing of quartz for the return of Bozs. lOdwts. of melted gold. ' : ■ ; ; - Sharemarket.—Sales -. Alburnia, 36s 6d; Golden Crown, 9s ; Queen of Beauty, 7s 3d • Blue Spur, Bs. Sellers : Whau, 7s 6d; Golden Crown, 10s ; Devon, 18s.; 'Buyers ■

Caledonian, 12s 6d ;. Devon, 17s ; Queen of Beauty, 6s 9d.'' - ■ •>■■■•■ ;

. / Coromandel, Wednesday. Tiki.—Blackmore and..party continue to■■; take out rich stuff. Henan's party have a large quantity of rich picked : stuff ori' hand.: Barrett's Jease are preparing to drive on ithe reef a foot thick. Good gold is in sight in-: several places. ':' ' : "'-- - I The place -was swarmed with visitors during the last few days, and all are highly pleased. ' . : TE AROHA. / / •' . ' Grahamstown, "Wednesday. ' So much has been written about this goldfield of late that it is almost impossible to write any more which will be read with interest.. At this time, however, it may be well to attempt to. forecast what, the probable future of the field will be, the deductions being based upon the knowledge which has been acquired during the two months that the field has been opened.. Prevkms to the opening of the district for goldmining purposes several parties were out prospecting in the Te Aroha ranges, and. the fact that nearly all the inen belonging to these parties were anxious on the day of opening to secure ground near the prospectors' claim must be , accepted as a proof that very little gold was discovered elsewhere. The truth was, notwithstanding what may have been said to the contrary, no specimens had been found except in the intermediate vicinity of, the prospectors' claim. It was the discovery 1 of the specimen leader by the ' original prospectors that was the chief attraction, for it was argued that where one such' leader existed, surely" others' would be found. Since the opening of the country for some distance around the- prospectors' claim has 'been prospected, and' although numerous lodes have been discovered, many of which give good dish prospects, while some have produced stone showing a little gold ; still, as yet, no specimens have been found. Judging by the results of the work which has. been done, it would, seem that it is unlikely rich specimens will be found near the surface, and hence it follows that the field is not a suitable one for the ' poor man. To enable a poor man to exist on a new reefing goldfield it is almost necessary that specimens should be found in abundance, so that he would be able to meet his outlay by havirtg frequent specimen crushings, or else readily dispose of his claim to the capitalist at a good figure... On the other hand, however, no matter whether the new goldfield prove a rich or poor one, the poor man is the true prospector, and therefore it follows, that for some time to come everything within reason should be adopted to induce the poor men to remain as long as possible on the Te Aroha field. (In the above remarks, the phrase " poor man" is not intended to mean those who are literally withont money, but rather the man of limited means as compared with the capitalist.) Be.cause the Te Aroha goldfield has not yet produced a quantity of rich specimens is no reason why it should be condemned as a duffer. The fact is, there is much to encourage one to expect v that in the future there will be a large mining population located here. Apparently, however, the ground will not be successfully worked in small claims or areas, and it will only be when it is held in large , areas by strong companies supported by abundance of capital and possessed of powerful batteries supplied with the very best of appliances for saving gold that anything like good results may looked for. On the Thames such, have been the improvements made in crushing and gold-saving machinery of late, that quartz which at one time' was thrown away as-worthless can now be made to yield a good margin of profit. Te Aroha seems to be possessed of a large number of lodes which will j ield fair average grade quartz, and there is no reason why, with machinery similar to that now in use at the Thames, these lodes should not be worked to good effect, but this cannot be done with small claims. It ought not to be a question of how many square feet there should be in one man's ground, or how many men's ground in one claim, but rather let each company hold some 20 or 30 acres of ground. Of course anything of this kind would scarcely do in the immediate future, but if Te Aroha is to be a successful goldfield apparently that is what it must come to in the end. There is very little doubt that many who have visited the Aroha—probably led away by the natural beauty and fertility of the whole district—have given expression to an opinion with regard to the goldfield more favourable than present results would warrant, and some, having accepted this opinion in good faith, will possibly be disappointed that the progress of the district is not more rapid. Time, however, will remedy any evil arising from, this source, and, as has been said above, there are good grounds for coming to the conclusion that some day the Aroha will support a considerable mining population. .