THE PROSPECTS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1911, 17 February 1875, Page 2

THE PROSPECTS.

Many and diverse are the opinions one hears of the prospects of this district ultimately turning out a payable goldfield, and as to the particular direction, if found at all payable, in which the line of reef is to be found. This morning a piece of stone was brought from the direction of the gorge, in which the color was seen, but there was notbinff in it to warrant the idea that any quantity of such, stuff would prbTe payable enough to pay for working in the present condition of things, A great number of the miners hare nerer, I am warranted in saying, seen tlje slightest prospects for hope, whue there are others

•who believe at the least that the land is well, worth trying; but it will take a prospecting;, and not therefore such as are here at present can have the ground properly three patches, it is the have been struck, and pretty well sure, but it is thought that there are several parties who will, when the district is proclaimed a goldfield, lay claim to the one piece of ground, and this will cause further delay, and a considerable amount of litigation. One party of miners who put a claim in for land a& Ohinemuri so far back in our history as 1868, are still "on the same lay," to use the parlance which is here "all the go.*' The,whole party—since then distributed as chance directed in very different directions—are now once more back here at Ohinemuri, with the exception of one. This party are pretty 'confident of their prospects, and from one of them I learn that there are, to his knowledge, good-looking reefs outside the present boundary. The cry is, has been, and will be, till the proclamation issues, for protection ; that is what the miners cry for," and there are some , who ».think that it would have been advisable to allow ~ protection to those men who _ ,wouldlhave madetheirdiscoveries public. Those who kept secrecy could not have keen so dealt with. This would have advanced the opening up of the field ;.; as it is, everyone is,depending on what his neighbor has got, and that luckless neighbor is very often depending on somebody else. As is the case everywhere when men's individual interests are at stake, there is a lamentable amottnt of ill-feeling between opposite parties, and each one regards the other' with an eye of extreme suspicion. -You may gather an idea of the amiability existing betweencertain "opposite interests/ by the fact that a" r«presentativ6 of one interest remarked to;ine that of the several reprei sentatives of another interest there was intot anindividual representative in the interesting combination but what would if ;they could experience the greatest pleasure in cutting his (my informant's) throat,.without having the -consideration to coyer his remains with a dock leaf. There are, two or three speculators up here, men with a look of gold about them, looking out, presumably, for the opportunity to invest. There are also a number of Thames townspeople here—-all, even unto the smallest of them, " waiting for something to turn up," in the spirit of one of Dickens' best characters; and if their patient faith is rewarded as well as was Micawbcr's they will be lucky. Permit me to say a word for the hotel at which I am stopping—the Traveller's Rest, Messrs Cassel and Bennett's. The people are most obliging, and every comfort is to be found here. I have been treated with exceptionally good hospitality, and the means placed at my disposal to perform those of my duties which require quiet; for which I cannot express • myself too much obliged. - In my next correspondence I shall be in a position probably to report what takes place at the meeting, which cannot surely delay much longer. —— 4 p.m.