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Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 333, 25 August 1868, Page 2

The police sheet was a<j;am clean yesterday morning, not a single offender having been captured either on Saturday or Sunday. A. civil case, Palmer v. the master of the schooner Mavis was heard, and a verdict by default was given for £32 7s, 6d the amount claimed and costs.

The appointment of Mr Lowe as District Engineer has already begun to hear good fruit. The Caledonian track has been carefully gone over by him, and is now to be kept in repair by Mr Maloney at £25 per month. A tender for £l4 was given in, but it was obvious that the work could not be done for that sum, and the icuucrer Piuuscijuciii/iy witliarciv his offer. The same officer has also been over the Addison's track, and under the spur of his presence the Shamrock track is being finished quickly and well. Yesterday he inspected the river protection, but whether he was satisfied with the experiment as at present tried wc caunot say. At all events, he has had the opportunity of witnessing the effect of high tides on the works, and will be able to bring practical experience to bear on his more scientific knowledge. Whether any change will be made on the existing plan remains to be seen. "An Experienced Miner" writes as follows to the "West Coast Times " :—The Thames G-oldfielda consist of quartz-reefs, and you must be

perfectly aware, Sir, that "a gold field of this kind requires a great amount of capital and preseverance to work it profitably. Quartz gold fields are generally sandstone, or strata of earth, that require to be worked by powder, hammer, and drills, unless the reef that you intend to prospect crops out of the surface. You may have to work for six or twelve months, and to do this you must have a considerable amount of capital. The news received tells us that many people have sold claims for many thousands of pounds ; and the same intelligence informs us that the ground is taken up for many miles. If the ground is only taken "up for ten claims, the miner who strikes the reef under three or six months is a lucky one, unless the reef crops out at the surface. My experience at Wood's Point, Dunollv Creek, Chines, Billabon?, and Tumut, (the first three in Victoria, the other two in New South "Wales) has taught me—and many of the men now rushing away Iwive also had experience on some of these goldfields—of the fact that a quartz goldfield is. a trying one for the most persevering miner ; and where one is paid for his

labor, there are hundreds that do not get a sight of the reef that they have worked hard for months in order to get at. With this knowledge before them, what are the miners leaving the West Coast for ? I wish to ask them the following questions, and, if they we able to answer them satisfactorily, ?f course they would be wrong to renain on the Coast : —" Are you prepared to prospect at the Thames G-old Field for six nr twelve months, as in >rder to do this you must have money

for six mouths' tucker, powder, drills, gads, and other necessaries? Are you prepared to lose twelve months' time and money, and then, after all this expenditure, probably never see the reef at all ?" Ask yourselvs these questions; think of your previous experience in quarta producing countries, and if you still intend going I hope you may never have to say to, yourselves—wo wish we had taken more notice of the warnings we have had.