THE THAMES GOLDFIELDS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 59, 11 March 1870, Page 2

THE THAMES GOLDFIELDS.

o ■ (From a Correspondent.) Having lately beea oa a visit to the Thames, it occurs to me that there may be many of your readers who will read with interest my notes of what I saw aud heard there. Of course, oue of my first moves was in the direction of the most celebrated claims, which are all situate iu close contiguity to one another, arid I soon received ocular demonstration that the reports of their great richness had not been exaggerated, many pieces of stone that were shown to me containing at least one-third gold. The expensive an<L elaborate machinery erected in different parts of the field fairly astonished me, and I was no longer at a loss to account for the large sums of nioney which I had heard had beeu expended there. Some of the crushing machines were well worthy of inspection. The Kuranui Company's comprises forty-four head of stampers, aud is kept constantly at work ; the shed alone, which is commodious and substantially built, and contains every requisite for crushing operations must have cost a large sum of money; at the Golden Crown too, there is another fine building over a powerful battery — and so I might go on at great length enumerating the various workshops which have so lately sprung into existence. The works on some of the claims are very extensive, and it really was difficult to credit that all those enormous drives, some hundreds of feet in length, carefully timbered, with tramways laid along them, shafts sunk to a depth equal to the length of the drives, well supplied with complete pumping gear, and all the necessary appliances for extracting the gold from the huge masses of rock, were the result of but two years' labor. The wire tramway, laid down the Moanatairi Creek by the Provincial Government, is a. novel and useful work, and stone in large quantities is brought along it from numerous claims. Wooden tramways abound in the district, and one laid along the Karaka Creek has, from the numerous sharp turns in it become notorious for the frequent accidents that have occurred upon it. On one occasion the Inspector of Tramways narrowly j escaped with his life. He was ridiDg up it, and suddenly saw a truck coming swiftly round a corner within a few yards of him; fortunately he had sufficient presence of mind to dismount quickly and throw himself down at full length between the rails, thus allowing the truck to pass over him. The unfortuate horse was struck by the advancing truck and hurled over the face of the cliff. The number and variety of swindles perpetrated in connection with the Goldfields are something astounding. The public have been gulled right and left, and those who had witnessed and detected the deception practised on their neighbors would not be deterred by their experience, but would insist upon thrusting themselves into the lion's mouth, simply because they fancied they could discern the color of gold a long way down the treacherous animal's throat, and the consequence was, of course, that his omnivorous jaws closed upon them and it was soon known that they had become so many more items in the mass of ruin and misery created by the speculating mania. The forms of swindling were so so simple that those at a distance from the prevailing excitement, can with difficulty understand how men with a grain of common sense, in their heads could so I easily be taken in. For ipstance, when the gold fever was in its last and most dangerous stage and those attacked by it were in all the agonies of delirium, there appeared ou the scene certain quack doctors who professed to be in possession of a prescription before which the disease must of necessity succumb. AU they required from

their patients was a little money and a superabundance of child-like faith in their advisers. The remedy prescribed con- " sisted of small samples of quartz impregnated with gold said to have been taken from a newly discovered claim, and of course displayed to the eager gaze of the poor fever-struck -wretch iu strict confidence and as a purely personal favor. All that was required to bring to light the hidden "treasure that, where such f specimens existed, must indubitably be . buried in the bowels of the earth, was a \ hundred or two of pounds from each of - some four or five individuals. It was given — patiently, but anxiously, did they wait for dividends which never came, at last it would be suggested that some trustworthy person should be sent to examine and report upon the state of the mountain which was said to be in labor with this golden calf. The trustworthy person went, and the trustworthy person returned, and, with a long face and a look of perplexity, he informed the dupes that he had searched for the claim high and low, but, alas ! ia vain, for he could neither see nor hear anything of it. And so it came to pass that the patients, if they were not killed, were completely cured of the gold-fever. The population of the Thames being so scattered, it is difficult to estimate the number even roughly, bu tr it i3 generally spoken of as from 15,000 to 20,000. Hundreds of able-bodied men are constantly out of employment, and it really is a painful sight on landing from a steamer to see the swarm of unfortunate individuals who are eager to earn a shilling by carrying your portmanteau. One storekeeper not long ago advertised for a boy to sweep out the store and carry messages and parcels, when some twelve or fourteen men applied for the situation. This will give you some idea of the state of the labor market. Of course there are some few who are making money, but the majority are very poo.ly off, and wages are very low, men who were making their £6 a week on theWestCoas*, when working on their own account, have to be content with £2 a week, and are glad to get even that.