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Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 438, 3 November 1868, Page 2

The news brought from Auckland by the John Perm is generally of a most unsatisfactory kind, so far as the gold fields are concerned ; and a fact which speaks plaiuer than anything we can say is that she brought back to the coast nearly 100 passengers, a large proportion of whom were, diggers. There is great distress in Auckland amongst the poorer classes. At Shovtland a few claims are continuing to give good returns, bub experience has proved that it is quite impossible to believe the* statements which from time to time appear in the Auckland pap3i\s concerning these claims, as the most of them are inserted for the purposes of speculation. We are glad to find that one newspaper has become convinced of the necessity of speaking out, and exposing the hollow system which has hitherto been carried on of publishing false returns of the yields of claims on the Thames for the purpose of attracting population. The "Weekly Herald 1 ' makes the following nice little expose: — " Our attention has been several times called to the fact that notices of claims at tho Thames published in t.he newspapers are often unreliable. Efforts are made to get a* paragraph in the paper speaking favorably of a claim ; a few pounds of stone are crushed ; the yield of gold therefrom is spoken of as so nvmy ounces per ton. Claims are constantly striking rich gold, and theyure confidently expected to yield a very large number of ounces, to the ton, and great expectations are put down as realities, while the amount of gold obtained from crnshings has in some instances, it is said, been overstated. Of course, such allegations can only refer to. some of the claims, but nevertheless such an impression can only do great harm. As an instance of this we may refer to the paragraph respecting the '••Auckland claim," winch we extract from the Thames Advertiser of yesterday into our present issue. It is there stated that from a previous trial 9oz. to the ton had been realised. As we ourselves have reason to know, the result from a crushing of 4 tons of stone was not 90z., but about loz. to the ton. Now, we have from the first done all we could to further the real interests of the Thames Goldfield. We have felt it to be our duty to condemn certain things, such as the system of jumping either the poor mean's or the rich man's ground, and undue puffing of claims, and incorrect statements as to yields from them cannot be praised. The insecurity, for want of leases of the ground, is scarcely a greater evil than the total absence of any reliable data on which to \ T alue a share in a claim. In the very same claim two different shareholders in it will differ to the extent of several hundred pounds in the estimate they put on their shares. Purchasing in mines of all kinds is notoriously at all times liable to uncertainty as to result ; but that uncertainty at the Thames is as great as it can well be imagined. And as the first part of the speculation fever passes away, men will be in cool possession of their facultie s once more, and share-buying at the Thames will be shorn of some, at least, of the uncertainty attached to it 'by the greater caution exercised by the purchaser. "