AUCKLAND.

Southland Times, Issue 1002, 12 August 1868, Page 2

AUCKLAND.

(PEOM OUE OWIT COEEESPOHDENT.) Attcklaitd, 31st July. All our representatives have gone to Wellington, the Provincial Council is in recess, and with the exception of the agitations going on in some of the up-country districts in favor of the county system, thereisnothingto record in politics. There can be no doubt that the local government propositions of Mr Stafford's are becoming popular, notwithstanding the pro* vincial party is still strong. Some of the Highway Boards have taken up the question, and in some districts, memorial! to the General Assembly to be constituted a county, are being numerously signed. The news of the escape of the Maories -from Chatham Island did not create much surprise here, as the event had been long expected. The "Waikato natives, it is said, are showing signs of discontent, but nothing has been yet done^to Justify the belief that they contemplate joining the rebel ranks. In fact, the spread of the gold- workings in this province appears to have had a pacifying effect upon many tribes. The liberal terms the miners at theThame3 have made with the Maori landowners, appears to have turned their attention to the discovery of gold, not so much with a view to work the ground themselves, as to lease it to the European miners. In fact we are beginning to feel that the gold-fields %vill settle the Native question far quicker and more satisfactorily than fighting ever could. Now that the Natives are showing a desire to open up their lands for mining purposes upon liberal terms, if the Government would aid them in prospecting by supplying tools, and appointing a few experienced miners as leaders of such native prospecting partie, as might come in and offer to throw open their land on lease, if they they proved aurifeorous, I believe that permenant peace could be cheaply Becured, and the prosperity of this province would be certain to follow. The Mail Services is again attracting considerable attention. The ' New Zea^ land Herald ' in writing on this subject has put the matter before the public in a manner that has met the approval of all or nearly all of the inhabitants of this city. . It says : — "The Government of New South Wales has written an official letter to the New Zealand Government Jto the effect that the people of New South Wales are extremely discontented with the present arrangements for the Suez mail service, the advantages resulting from- which are decidedly in favour of Victoria : that as Victoria will have nothing to do with the Panama line, having withdrawn from the arrangements proposed by the Postal Convention at Melbourne last year, I because that port was not made the terminus of the line, it therefore behoves New South Wales and New Zealand, to combine for the purpose of making the service via Panama as '"efficient' 7 ' and serviceable as possible, and that 'this can in a great measure be done, -especially as regards New South Wales, by causing the boats to arrive two days-eariierr-The latter, it is said^proceeds to point out to the New Zealand Government that this saving of time "can be -accomplished if the pofctfof arrival in New Zealand was .changed'lrom -WeUingtoii to, the^ ;Bayr<p/ Islands. -A^e, .fyaTO v agajn-.And again pointed out the ad Vantages of this route, iviiich"ar6'"tdany' over ttot T from ):^natta via •■" Wellington;''; • •Ib'^is not Vmerely -'» matter of time,* but-of comfort also to- the passengers. , .The ; splendid ,si^aming-,coal japw ; . opened, jjgfin.any/. ..quantity, and it > low J>rice, at the Bay, will also" render this route the most profitable to the compltnyr 'Of co'itfse "Such ' a "proposal'frbm the "New- South Wales Government, m we' have just mentioned,. i»r tantamount to a notice that if such alteration- be yj npt made •Nev^.-So-uth Wales.will withdraw as early f .,,as, ppsisibler.lJcpm,. tiie., arrangement caade— betweea~_the.-tjtQ..£QlQnie3*.^_Tiie New /% Zealand,, Government *. if. it,, really looks uppQ, the, Panama service as a benefit to the cblbnyVand some^ will say, as ,a,means,tpwards~centralising the, r Government of New Zealand; will not hentate to mate the' . ! cKangß~ a change" which will not only give Sydney a two days*- earlier poßt,-15uif^more^-gejierally benefit New Zealah'd'itself." „. ■ I do not suppose tha¥ypu r in f ttt^^buth. will readily fall iv with" this arrangement.

No doubt the Suez line is of the most consequence to you, but upon consideration I think you will see that if tbe Panama line is to be the only one the change would be to your advantage; that if an inter-Provincial service is to be continued, and the mail steamer sailing from the Bay of Islands, for the various provincial ports, bound not to stay more than two hours in any one port, it would prove satisfactory. At any rate the feeling here is that some change must be made. "While upon this subject I may state that a Sydney firm has offered to establish a weekly steam communication with this Province if our merchants will agree to do all their Sydney business, through the company,, in the shape of goods, for a period of six months; the charge for freight being thirty shillings a ton. If this proposal is accepted we shall derive all the benefits arising from the Suez mail independent of the Government. The progress of our goldfields is satisfactory in every sense of the word. New reefs are being found iv all directions; and in many instances the yields are surprisingly rich. I hare collected a few items, the truth of which may be depended upon. On the 30th July, Mr Hunt, who came up from Shortland by the s.s. ' Duke of Edinburgh ' j last night, brought up eight ingots, estimated to contain about 3.5000z of gold ; thus, together with the 7,2070z. already received, bringing the total quantity of gold produced from Hunt's claim during less than a fortnight to 10,7070z. Mr Hunt thus becomes an easy winner of the wager he made some time ago, that the claim would produce 10,000oz. within a month from commencing crushing. A Mr Jones who also came up, in the ' Tauranga,' brought up about l,ooooz. Both parcels were lodged in the Union Bank. Mr MacKelvie of the firm of Messrs Brown, Campbell and Co., has received a communication from Captain Hutton, at present at Rangiriri, giving the detaila of some recent discoveries of rich goldbearing quartz at the new El Dorado in that district. Captain Wilson who has also arrived from the Waikato speaks very hopefully of the richness of the quartz at Eangiriri, and a large quantity of it, consigned to Mr C. J. Stone, of Lower Queen-street, was on its way yesterday evening from Drury to be sent on to the Thames for crushing. A parcel of eight ounces of gold, worth L 3 15s per oz. wag brought from Kennedy's Bay to the Bank of New Zealand last week. The gold was waterworn and entirely free from quartz, a clean sample of alluvial gold, some of the pieces weighing from | to i an ounce each. A fine specimen of quartz richly impregnated with gold was yesterday brought to town by a native named Tuohu, son of EangitiraMoatara, the principal chief of Hokianga. The reef from which the specimen was broken by Moatara himself is on native land at "Wangape, the same neighborhood whence the specimen was lately sent to Mr Buckland by a European settler. The gold is apparently of the same quality as that found at the Thames, though the quartz differs somewhat in appearance. W^e learn that the Hokianga natives, who by-the-bye are also from other and reliable sources represented to be as orderly and well disposed a set of natives as any in the North, are very anxious that gold should bet discovered on their lands, and are no ways averse to prospecting. Mr Hunt's father and party has been prospecting in the district for some little time past. They are reported to have found quartz having gold in it in no less than three different gullies or creeks, but not in any large quantities nor defined reefs. . They are still prospecting, and very sanguine of success.