THE THAMES DISTRICT.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XII, Issue 518, 17 October 1867, Page 2

THE THAMES DISTRICT.

73 OZS. OF GOLD FOR 30 HOURS’ WORK ! (rrora the Weekly Express, 12tli October.) The p.a. Enterprise, Capt. Seon, arrived from the Thames on Wednesday, and brings not only encouraging but highly satisfactory intelligence of the development of the Thames gold-field. Although tiie greatest silence is from prudential motives, observed by those who have discovered and are in the occupation of new reefs, occasionally information leaks out which unmistakeably proves the Thames reefs to be of unparalleled richness. Wo have authority for slating as an undoubted fact, ascertained just before the departure of the the Eiiterpibe, that one party obtained 73 o/.s. of gold as the result of 30 hours’ crushing! The quartz is immensely rich, there can be no doubt of I it. It is accumulitmg in large quantities, and the only machinery on the ground is a couple of small Berdan machines. If such valuable reefs had been discovered [anywhere but in Auckland the ground would have been covered with machinery llong before now. It is the invariable opinion of persons of any experience who 'have visit.ai the Thames that it will turn p-ut tho richest reeling districts in the 'colonies. | Tiie population of the diggings now 1 amounts to nearly 15'X) persons. Towards illie end of the week it will probably have

j reached £ ;10. What are all these loOb [people doing? it will be asked. No one I making a casual trip to the diggings knows j V great many go out prospecting ; they ; disappear over tiie rang ■# in search of new j [reels; bring in bags ol quartz to be tested,] [keeping the locality of the supposed new] [reef u secret. Same adopt the precaution I ! of bavin;- their claims mark, d out at once.) land obtain protect! m trum the Warden: [until they can return to Auckland iorj [tools and prov-si ms. j I Wo arc inform, dby experienced persons! bvli) have visited the diggings that goldj w-ili be found “in aoy amount;” or in ; other words, the resources of the Thames. 1m tins respect, are inexhaustible. Ad jlha! is wanted no v is machinery, j Several be.es of quartz from new reefs I have bra n broag.u up ia the Enterprise, to be tested. [ The l-'ntorprise brought up 30 passenlycrs, among-:, whom a-o Messrs \V. J | Young, Her it, An ici-son, -Simpson, a.id 1 !!i ok. Tne p-issent '- s \v!u> h ivc returned ifi- either busmess in m or miners, who have come up for supplies. b From Uie Convs;vnul..'ht of the Weekly Express.)

tihort.and Town, October 9. i'llEnterprise arrived yesterday afternoon, bringing 11-i passengers, which docs not look much a- 1 if every one considered that this field was not a suecs*.

The claims that are turinii:' out any oood stone are steadily working away, ana if a person was to stay away for a fort- ! night, as 1 have done, they would hardly Iknow a claim aeain. j, Everybody is on the q>d rice, waiting Tor the upper country to be opened, ami if report speaks true there will be one 'or two good spots rejged oIT there | a* soon as it is lawful to put the pegs j in. j lr is quite useless to try and chronicle! all the rushes which are daily taking place here, some of which o.dy turn out good stone. liuihling seems the order of the day down hero. Mr Mudigan is making large !additions to the Victoria Hotel. 1 The Midge arrived last night with 104 passengers, thus making a total of 219 by pile two boats, besides 39 others who came |by the cutters. There cannot bo far off i2UhO men down here now, and there is ! not room for many move until we get some iinoro land opened, though as soon as there jis some crushing done there wiil be some [demand for labor; but at present the ■ cl.ims cannot alford to pay men wages, as iin moat cates the claimhoidcrs are men | with very little money. The only subject inow talked about is the arrival of a crushling machine and the opening of the Upper i Thames. | There are now nearly 900 miner’s rights I issued ; before this reaches you that num■ber will have increased.