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Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1953, 8 April 1875, Page 2

The detractors of Ohinemuri are still busy. Some of these individuals are not content with saying that the new field is a " duffer" on an experience of a few days, but they profess to know all about how it came to be looked upon as a gold field at all, and in doing this they draw largely upon their imagination for their Yacts. Hero is a specimen from the Grey Eiver Argus, furnished to that journal by a Mr Peter Dungan, M.P.C., which, it is stated, was received from a friend of his who with others recently left the We^t Coast for Ohinemuri. The letter is dated the 15th March, and reads ai follows:—" This will inform you that this is the greatest idufler of a rush I was ever at. - Up to the present time there is not one penny-weight of gold got, and I think a rery poor appearance. There are plenty of reefs, but no gold in the stone has been found as yet, and I do not think any alluvial, for there is no wash except in one creek which is called the Waitekauri. We have been there and hundreds besiJel we can get the color, but nothing payable. I fully expect we-will leave here in a few days, and most of the men have left and the remainder going every hour. I will $tell you what is the cause of all this ru«-h.T last 30 years plenty of white men have been stopping \*ith the Meories, or rather loafing on them, and since the i Thames Goldfield opened they have been showing specimens and blowing in order to get the business men at the Thames to back them, find plenty of them have been getting both, money and tucker. Now, when the field is opened they can show neither gold nor specimens. I will mention one case:—Last week one of the isurvey men broke a piece of quartz off a reef up in the ranges and took it to .Mackaytown. All the old reefers proneuncedot a fine specimen, and would go jsooz to the ton. The specimen was sent to the Bank assayer, who, after testing it with acids, declared there was no gold in it. The ' old reefers' would not believe this, and got it crushed and amalgamated, but not a single trace of gold was .discovered. On. Friday last five men came here from "Westport, but they left next morning."

It will be observed that on the date this letter was written Ohinemuri had been proclaimed a goldfield t« e}ve days; Very little work had been done; Public interest

waa centred round the Prospectors' Claim, and nearly all the miners on the field were camped about Mackaytown, so that the writer had very little grounds for pronouncing' the field the " greatest duffer rush" he was ever present at. A little consideration would Have suggested to him the propriety of reserving his judgment for a short time. Again, he has been at the Waitekauri and has got the "color." On the fctfehgtli of that, and his admission that " there are plenty of reefs," we should have thought a bona fide digger would have seen some encouragement to do a little prospecting. But no ; that is not the writer's idea. He proceeds to give* from his point of view, the cause of the rush, which is simply an unfounded assertion that for thirty years a number ;pf white men h«Lve:been loafing on the Maories, getting specimens, and inducing business men to back theiu with money and tucker. Such letters as this do a great deal of harm. Not in the direction of preventing a rush, for there is not much fear of a rush until something more tempting has been discovered, but in giving currency to opinions and assertions for which there is no foundation. The field has not been open yet six weeks, but it may be mentioned for the benefit of those at a distance, that already negociations are on foot for removing a thirty stamper battery to the Gorge—to crush for the Prospectors, ifc is believed, for a quarter share in which claim £125 has been given? by one already* largely interested. We have no doubt the writer of this letter, and many others of his class will have reason to alter their opinions before -many months are over ; but should they shake off the dust of their feet on Ohinemuri they can very well be spared. \ ;X - \