COROMANDEL.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1714, 13 August 1862, Page 3

COROMANDEL.

From Coromandel the news is still encouraging, and gold continues to arrive ia small parcels. A nice 3 : ttla nugget of 11 lbs. 2 ozs., together with some 20 ounces of broken specimens, some of which were, we are informed, sold for £3 per ounce, quartz and all, were brought to town on Saturday last by Mr. Dwrt, one of the fortunate proprietors of a leader in a claim in the Driving Creek. The large specimen is certainly the richest nugget of its size yet found in Coromandel, being of only the same size, or ii anything smaller than the 9lb. piece sold to Mr. Cochrane for £l5O, and consequently the increased weight of 2 ft., in the same bulk, may fairly be set down to the presence of so much additional gold. Perhaps the best feature in the Coromandel results, is the continual discovery of rich auriferous leaders, and of reefs which, hereafter, when machinery will allow of their being fairly tested, may be found little less rich in gold. The absence of alluvial diggings is a matter rather of congratulation than otherwise. The working man himself will be the gainer by changing the hazardous speculation of an alluvial gold field for a high and steady rate of wages to be obtained from a quartz crushing company. It has been proved to demonstration that in Victoria, during no time of its existence as a gold producing country, have the average earnings of the men employed on the diggings amounted to much more than one-half of the current rate of wages at the time being. That there are alluvial diggings in the country there can be little doubt, and that gold from those localities will find its way to this city during the ensuing summer is equally certain. The example of the Coromandel diggers and the result of their labors will not, we hope, be thrown away upon so imitative and enterprising a race as the Maories —and they will see it so clearly to their own interest to set about themselves the working of their own gold fields, that we may look to this event as a happy resource to rescue them from the state of misery and starvation, which their inattention to the ordinary agricultural work of planting and sowing is likely to entail upon them. To Auckland it matters little by whom the gold is found, so long that it (finds its way into circulation, and so increases the general prosperity —while there is no one but would hail with satisfaction so beneficial and legitimate a means, by which the race might, by the possession of wealth and the creation of new wants, succeed in raising themselves into a position of social and pob'tical civilisation. The nugget found by Dwrt's party has been named the Victoria Nugget, and is on view in the window of Mr. Buchanan, watchmaker, Eraser's buildings. In its rough state, and without close inspection, the richness of this nugget can hardly be seen, and we think the exhibitors have scarcely done it justice in not having polished up at least one face of it, the gold hav ing more the appearance of a layer of rust jtlian anything else. It is intended to dispose of this valuable specimen by raffle, for £2OO in as many shares of £1 each —a fair arrangement—as the value of the gold may be estimated at fully that amount.