THE GOLD FIELDS OF SOUTH AFRICA.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 423, 8 December 1868, Page 3

THE GOLD FIELDS OF SOUTH AFRICA.

A great feature of our budget this month (writes a Natal paper in October) is the intelligence we have received that the gold prospectors have found the southern goldfield discovered by Mr Mauch be as rich as thty hoped it would be. This long-looked for news reached us in a letter from our Potchefstroom correspondent, dated June 22. It appears that on the 18th of June Mr C. Solomon,* trader from Secheli's Town, which is on the road to the Cape colony to Bamangwato, the residence of the ruling chief, Matjen, brought a letter from Mr 11. Taylor, of the former place, and dated the sth of June, " which places the success of the diggers beyond all doubt." The substance of this communication was to the effect that in the early part of May, 60 to 70 men were successfully at work on the quartz reef discovered by Mauch, on the north bank of the Tatin. So rich were the deposits of gold on this reef that the diggers confined their attention to it, snd were hammering and blasting pieces of quartz, remarkably rich in the precious metal, which is reported to be present in " its most pure and unalloyed form." The veins are sometimes more than an inch broad, and some of the small flat pieces of quartz which at present reward the diggers' toil contain, at a rough valuation, from £1 to £3 worth of gold. The Eev. J. Mackenzie, a missionaay at Matjen's, had sent off express Kaffirs to the diggings for reports and specimens, and with these, when they came, he intended to start for Potchefstroom. As his appearance was looked for at the latter place within a few days, it will not be long before we in Natal are placed in possession of specimens. Some are said to have already reached Hopetown, a frontier town of the Cape colony. Meanwhile, several other parties have started, or intended to start, from the Transvaal, the Pree State and Natal, while from the neighboring colonies there will probably proceed many goldhunters. Much excitement prevails throughout the colony on the subject, and as soon as the arrival of nuggets puts the doubts of even the most sceptical to flight an exodus of our yoking and unencumbered men may be expected. It is interesting to know that Mauch's statements have been in all respects confirmed.