LATEST NEWS FROM AUCKLAND AND THE THAMES.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXIII, Issue 2729, 8 September 1868, Page 5

LATEST NEWS FROM AUCKLAND AND THE THAMES.

By the s.s. Airedale, Captain Kennedy, which arrived yesterday, we have our Auckland, Nelson and Marlborough files. We give a few of the more important items of news. Tho New Zealand Herald of the 2nd instant estimates tho quantity of gold now in the Auckland banks from tho Thames is from 10,000 to 12,000 ounces. The breakdown in the ease of Hunt's machine, and the wet weather, which has impeded tho progress of mining works, amply accounts for tho small quantity of gold. The amount exported this month will, therefore, not be as much as might have beeu expected. Nevertheless, those acquainted with the rough nature of the country at the Thames district will hardly he surprised even at tho returns i'or the month, considering the frightful weather. Quartz and alluvial gold arc said to havo been found in several places in the vicinity of Opotiki. That Rangiriri will yet turn out a payable goldfield, wo (N.Z. Herald) have little doubt, if it only succeeds in obtaining a thorough trial ; but there is even still greater and speedier certainty of an extcusive goldlield being opened up higher up the Waikato. The land belongs to tho natives, but they are willing to throw it open to European enterprise. Exceedingly rich stone has been found at Matamata. Tho N.Z. Herald says:— There is already a population of 15,000 persons at the Thames. The grand future of tho goldfield, and that which must be the most cheering to every one of us, ia tlio (

fact that a population of fifteen thousand souls lias found room for itself upon only the thirtyfourth portion of auriferous country thrown open for selection, and that there remains fully twice as much auriferous country adjacent yet in the hands of the natives to bo opened ere long to European enterprise. The country already opened comprises some 700 square miles, the area actually occupied by claims not more than between 15 and 16 square miles, while those occupying the area have faith in the permauency of the goldlield. The money invested in the purchase of portions of shares in claims already discovered, Auckland money principally, amounts to a sum of £80,000 j the value ol the permanent wooden buildings at the Thames is estimated at £50,000 ; and the machinery now erected, and in course of erection, lias cost some £38,000. Such figures as these will prove what tho Auckland people themselves think of their goldfield. A ton of quartz from one of the leaders in the Port Wiiikato Claim, Kurunui Kange, was crushed at tho Kurunui Battery, and showed a yield of soz 14'dwt of retorted gold. It was the intention of his Lordship the Bishop of New Zealand and Lichfield to proceed to the Bay of Islands by the missionary schooner Southern Cross, on a pastoral visit to that district ; the Bishop, however, fouud that a largo amount of business lay before him, and that his stay in New Zealand being necessarily limited would not admit of his visiting the Bay. The Southern Cross will therefore proceed direct to Norfolk Island, to bring by Bishop Patteson. The Bishop of New Zealand contemplates a return to his diocese of Lichfield by the Suez mail, leaving Sydney at the and of October. Captain Toppin, of H.M. 18th Royal Irish, was a passenger for Tahiti by U.I.M. Dorado., recently, on sick leave. The following is the disposition of tho Australian squadron : — II.M.S. Challenger, Commodore Lambert, South Sea Islands ; If .M.S. Blanche, Fiji ; 11.M.5. Brisk, en- route for home ; H.M.S. Hosario, in harbor.