THE AUCKLAND GOLDFIELDS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 558, 23 September 1869, Page 3

THE AUCKLAND GOLDFIELDS.

A Westportian now on a visit to the Thames writes to us as follows: —The share market at present is very low. There is any number of bubble companies in the market, and it is dangerous for strangers to invest. There are very few men in Auckland who have not some interest in most of the claims. In fact as soon as they have got 'scrip in one claim, they change with some of their friends for some in another. For the present Coromandel is the chief source of attraction, and, strange to say, there is no steamer running from Auckland direct, but you can go to Shortland and ship there —a dodge of the steamer companies, for the distance from Auckland to both places is much the same. The report at Wanganui as I was going north was that the Thames had been opened, but the report is unfounded, and I believe there is little chance of it being opened for some time yet. The Civil Commissioner is going up next week to see what can be done with the Maoris, and the Auckland people expect Mr McLean round to go with him ; and if there is any man in the Colony that can influence them, he is the man, and it is to be hoped that he will be successful. I start on Monday for Coromandel, and shall send you all particulars. Messrs Sanders and Kissling, stockbrokers, report favorably of the extension of the Thames and Coromandel fields. They say:—We stated in our report that the Auckland goldfields were being extended rapidly over a much larger area than hereto-

fore; since that date the progress of development has become day by day mare marked. The claims situated on the Kuranui Hill, and in the line of Dixon's reef, were the only ones which could at that time command a ready market. Now, however, the case is altered, and sales can be effected without difficulty in several mine 3 situated at a distance from the district named. There can be no doubt that the Karaka district is fast coming into notice, and, although the yields from it will certainly not rival those from the specimen claims about the Kuranui, they can nevertheless be shown to be highly remunerative to shareholders, especially when the comparative cost of interest is considered. The same remark applies almost equally to the claims situated ou the Hape and Tararu. With respect to the latter, the immense reefs which have been laid bare along its whole course render it certain that this will be one of the most permanently gold-bearing parts of the field. Rich finds, are almost weekly reported at Coromandel, and again between that district and Kennedy's Bay, on the east of thepeninsula. At Puriri again many claims are turning out stone of the most promising character. On the whole there is perhaps no part of the field on which investments so cheap and of such genuine goodness are offered to purchasers. We firmly believe that this part of the field, so long retarded by the absence of machinery, will yet come to be looked upon as a favorite district, and will give yields equal to those from many of the claims that are now thought so much of. With respect to the nest of claims from which hitherto the main yield of the Thames has been derived we have merely to state that they still keep up their former reputation.