4

Mr. Coolaban's party, which he had purchased to be sent to Sydney, and also some dust as well cleaned as the diggers can do it on the spot. The nuggets, and in fact all the gold, from Messrs. Coolahan's and Creighton's and Cook's diggings, are so sharp in their angles, and the gold flakes are so strong as to warrant the Commissioner in supposing that the vein of auriferous rock cannot be far—perhaps not more than 200 yards distant from the place of present deposit. The locality of the Kapunga diggings is on the side of a wooded hill, above the stream, and about 300 yards inland. A slip of earth appears to have filled up the course of a narrow rivulet, and the gold is found in this bed amongst rotten stumps, quartz blocks, and decayed vegetation. Mr. Heaphy supposes that, by carefully following up the slip, the auriferous rock partly denuded by it will eventually be found.

Amongst the parcels was some red coloured gold brought from the Waiau. On that stream the floods of last week had filled the pits of many of the diggers with drift sand.

The Commissioner had found a place where a dry water course, running for some distance nearly parallel with the Kapunga stream, at one spot approached within three yards of the main stream, the bed of which was four feet higher. At this locality, under the advice, the Messrs. Ring had, by one day's excavation, turned the water so as to lay dry for working upwards of a quarter of a mile of the main stream. In this dry river bed they commenced working on Saturday, with good expectations of success during the summer.

We are gratified to learn that Mr. Heaphy's report confirms all we had previously heard of the quiet and friendly conduct of the natives. He had effected an extension of the Government boundary line to the northward, whereby the rich deposit, in which Mr. Coolahan works, has been added to the district already ceded to the Government.

Such is the substance of the information kindly supplied to us. On the whole, from all we can ascertain, we may infer that the majority of the diggers are earning fairly remunerative wages,—some, more than this; while, on the other hand, there are some, who want of tools, or of skill, or of energy and perseverance, or owing to the floods, or again through want of what the miners call "luck" in choosing their spots of labour, are earning barely a maintenance—if even so much.

Still all obtain more or less gold; and when the field is better worked larger results may be hoped for. We should add that Mr. Heaphy has brought up a number of specimens of quartz in which specks of gold are very visible, found by himself in various localities in which the diggers had commenced operations, and thus holding out encouraging promises of the wide extent of the auriferous tract.

GOLD CIRCULAR.

The first public sale of Gold, the product of this Province, was held at our Auction Mart on

Saturday, 11th inst. The parcel offered for sale comprised about six ounces of gold dust, and about ten ounces of auriferous quartz, dug by Mr. Coolahan's party, at the Wynyard Diggings, Coromandel Harbour.

The dust consisted of flaky gold of a pale lemon colour, largely intermixed with auriferous quartz, the separation having been effected only by washing in the simplest manner. The gold quartz, which was offered in separate lots, consisted of the larger pieces selected from the washings.

The sales from this parcel at and prior to the auction were as follows:

Half an ounce of flake gold,
entirely free from quartz
or other extraneous matter £10 0 0 per oz.
2 oz. gold dust, above de-
scribed average........... 4 5 0 "
3½ ozs. gold quartz, average 3 10 3 "
Single specimens of gold
quartz, the whole weighing
about an ounce ............ 6 5 0 "
The entire quantity sold realizing .... *£32 1 0

The prices realized in this instance bore little relation to the intrinsic value of the lots, which were offered and purchased, more as illustrative specimens, than for the actual value of the gold they contained.

No very accurate assay of this gold has yet been obtained, but it is found to be free from any alloy, except silver, of which it contains a portion. The quartz is lightly auriferous, and from its great friability may be separated by crushing with great facility.

Some very fine samples of gold from the Waiau diggings, distant from the foregoing about seven miles, were brought into town to-day, and have been sold at £4 per ounce by private sale—the quantity about five ounces.

Considering the small number of diggers yet upon the ground, not more than 40 persons, scattered over an area of 10 or 12 square miles, the short time since the first specks of gold were discovered—only two months—and the large proportion of the time of each digger employed in exploring, we hail this commencement of the Auckland Gold Diggings as affording the most brilliant promise of ultimate productiveness.

CONNELL & RIDINGS,
Gold Brokers.

Commission Merchants and General Auctioneers.
Auckland, 13th December, 1852.

• This £32 1s. is included in the £82 15s. set forth in the enclosure of Despatch, No. 133.
  W. COCKCRAFT, Priv. Sec.

Civil Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 6th January, 1853.

WITH reference to a Notice, dated Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, 11th August, 1851, relative to the issue of Tobacco, duty free, for sheepwashing, his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief has been pleased to direct that