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Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 271, 13 June 1868, Page 7

The Auckland gold fields appear to be increasing in extent and importance. The quartz reefs in the Thames district are proving exceedingly rich, and it is no w authoritatively announced that alluvial workings have been discovered. Mr Commissioner Mackay haa lately addressed a report to the Superintendent of Auckland, in which he states that on the 13th ult he proceeded up the Haratunga. The first three miles was over a flat block of ground, very suitable for a township-r-the eastern side having been leased by Mr Smart, while tbe western side has been reserved for cultivation. The main creek is fed by five rivers of some size, and by some others of minor importance. On four of the streams, two on the east, and two on the west, alluvial gold has been found by Mr M'Leod while another party of prospectors have found it in another creek. He (Mr Mackay) is of opinion that gold exists in payable quantities, and there will be work for at least three or four hundred men in creek and bank mining. Mr M'Leod handed to him four or five ounces of gold, some of which was very much water-worn, and three or four other samples of quartz containing gold worth from £2 15s to £3 10s per ounce. No gold has as yet been found in any reef, excepting the one found by the natives. The upper part of the river is described as similar to Collingwood on the "West Coast, and in this judgment he was borne out by miners from that district. The Eocky Biver diggings was a payable one, and there the gold was found in patches, as has been the case at Kennedy's Bay as far as they have prospected it as yet. Under the circumstances Mr Mackay considered himself justified in granting additional claims to the discoverer of the field. There were, when the Tauranga left, upwards of one hundred men at work on the ground. The Southern Cross publishes the following as the latest news from the goldfields : —" The news brought by the steamer Tauranga which arrived from Kennedy Bay last night is simply corroborative of that we published on Saturday. We learn that between 300 or 400 people were on the ground, and that the number is rapidly increasing, both by means of land and water. Gl-ood gold is

being got from all the creeks ; but it appears that no one has as yet attempted reefing. A fortnight's protection has been granted to claimholders. We take the following from the Grey River Argus : Mr Gilles, of the firm of Carey and Gilles, of Hokitika, who has just returned from Queensland, in the firm's steamer Star of the South, gives a very deplorable account of the condition of the miners there. The alluvial diggings in the Maryborough district are almost completely worked out, and thousands of men are rushing about the country from place to place wherever the rumor of gold is heard. The quartz reefs are idle, there being no machinery for crushing, and no probability of there being any for some considerable time. At the time the Star of the South left a rush had set in to the Cape River diggings, to the north of Cleveland Bay, and thousands of men were flocking thither. The accounts from that place were not very favorable as regards the diggings, and the extreme unhealthiness of the climate and scarcity of water had produced a fearful amount of mortality amongst the miners, upwards of seventy out of some five or six hundred having died from fever and ague, or sunstroke. Mr Gillies states that all the West Coast hands are anxious to get back, but they have not the means. The Star of the South could have been crammed with return passengers if she would have taken them at the rate offered. A good many are knocking about Sydney and other parts of New South Wales.

The following is from the Nelson Evenings Mail: —" The Charleston people may well cry' save us from our friends,' as the following little episode, which occurred last night in the Provincial Council during the consideration of the Estimates, will sufficiently illustrate. When rhe vote for Harbor Master at that port came under considaration, Mr. J. V. Smith, the member for Westport, moved that the salary of that officer be increased. All was going on well for the increased rote when Mr. Donne rose and asked that certain 'Remarks' made by tho Harbor Master of Charleston should be read. These remarks concluded by saying that 'to make Charleston a good harbor it would require dock-gates across the entrance,' —and the Clerk of the Council, like honorable members themselves,j was so convulsed with laughter, that he with difficulty concluded the sentence —'or large swinging booms might be the means of breaking the heaviest of the sea.' We need hardly add that the unfortunate Harbour Master suffered by the illtimed intervention of the representative of the 'Hole in the Wall,' as we heard Charleston irreverently styled last night." The Oamaru Times points to the probability of a Goldfield being proclaimed in the neighborhood. It says : "There are rumors in town of the discovery of a payable Goldfield in Oamaru. That gold exists in the district has long been well-known, and recently two or three small parcels have been sold in town, but hitherto nothing like payable ground has been opened up. If what rumor says be true, it would appear that ere long we shall have to clironicle the proclamation of a goldfield in the vicinity. We have made inquiries, and the following are the facts that we have been able to elicit: —lt appears that one day last week a party in town purchased some ounces of a very fine sample of waterworn nuggetty gold, said to have been obtained in the neighbourhood of Oamaru. The party in question very properly refuses to state the locality in which it was found, having been bound to secrecy by the sellers, whose interests might suffer by the premature disclosure of their secret. That some faith is put in the story is sufficiently evidenced by the fact that several miners' rights have been applied for As to the locality of the alleged find nothing more definite reaches us than that it is within 20 miles of Oamaru according to some, and 10 miles according to others."

The modest virgin, the prudent wife or the careful matron, are much more serviceable in life than petticoated philosophers, blustering heroines virago queens. She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice, aud trains up the other to virtue, is a much heroine greater than ladies described in romance. those whose occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from the quiver of their eyes. —Goldsmith. The other day two colored individuals were standing at a depot—one on the platform, the other on the track. The gemmen on the track was indulging in loud laughter at something he had witnessed, when his comrade-called out —" I say Bill you's be great danger dar!" "Why so?" says Bill. „Kase when de train come along it'll take your mouf for the depot and run in dar!" —American paper.