AUCKLAND GOLDFIELDS.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 313, 1 August 1868, Page 6

AUCKLAND GOLDFIELDS.

We take the following items of intelligence from the New Zealand Herald and the Thames Advertiser. from July 18th to July 21th : The s.s. Halcyon arrived at Auckland on July 18th, bringing 1200 ounces of gold from the Thames Uoldiields. The celebrated claim at the Thames —Hunt and party's yielded 50 )0 ounces of gold in four days. The steam battery was started on Monday, July 20th, and in the first sixteen hours 1500 ounces were obtained, and by Thursday evening, 5000 ounces. An ofi'er of £IOOO has been refused for a fuli share in the Eldorado claim, on the Thames. A slight rush has taken place to the Puriri, near the Thames. One party of six men have obtained quantities varying from four to live dwts. to the dish, outof the dirt. On July 21st, six hundred men were on the ground. Some splendid samples of quartz, taken from the Pretty Jane claim, on theKaraka, were exhibited on July 7th, which go far to prove the richness of this district. The stones weighed several pouuds, and are thickly studded with rich gold. Something like a snake story is told by the East Maitland correspondent of the Newcastle Chronicle —a terrific contest with the subsequent death of a snake of wondrous size. He says it was seen about two miles from Newcastle, on the Oakvale road, by a young man who was on horseback. He at once dismounted and attacked the reptile with a sapling. "It however, had no intention of being so summrrily disposed of, and showed fight. The issue of the combat seemed somewhat uncertain, but Mr James Mayo happened to come along at the time,andhis assistance by his snakeship was despatched. The beast was of a leaden color, and, I believe of a very venom/us species. It was, according to my informant, very little short of twenty feet in length, and about five inches in diameter. On opening it, its destroyers found three or four opossums and several young snakes in it."

Female Lavtyehs.—A bill has passed the lowa Senate which will gladden the hearts of the fair sex. It rea^s:— " Any person twenty-one years of age, who isactually an inhabitant ofthe State and who satisfies the district court of tbis State that the said persou possesses the requisite learning and is of good moral character," shall be admitted to practice as an attorney in the different courts of the State. A correspondent says the wisdom of Blaekstone and Coke hereafter will be nowhere, and that beautiful lawyeresses " with a bewitchiog smile and a sparkliug eye," will turn juryman's heads topsy-turvy. The only remedy will be to give women a representation on the jury also. It takes a woman to read a woman.— Toronto Globe.