First in order were the Thames gold-fields. A steamer carried them in five hours from Auckland to Grahamstown, and as soon as they were on shore they began their inspection of the mines. There are no placer diggings here, the mining being almost entirely confined to the veins of quartz in the mountains, which rise abruptly from the shore of the bay on which Grahamstown is built. For this reason Grahamstown, which takes its name from Robert Graham, its founder, has a more permanent and substantial appearance than the ordinary town in a newly opened mining country. It lies along the shore of the bay, and the numerous reduction-works, founderies, and similar establishments were suggestive of a manufacturing centre rather than a mining one only a few years old.
[Illustration: STAMP-MILL AT GRAHAMSTOWN.]
Doctor Bronson had a letter of introduction to a gentleman interested in one of the largest mines, and the trio of travellers were at once made welcome. Clad in appropriate costumes, they were taken into the mine, where they walked a long distance through a tunnel, and were then conducted through a perfect maze of shafts and levels, where the workmen were busily occupied in removing the auriferous rock, which was carried directly to the reduction-works, where it was crushed and the precious metal extracted. The gold contains a large amount--thirty per cent.--of silver, and consequently has an appearance of pallor when turned out from the retorts. As the work of gold-mining has been described elsewhere in the wanderings of the boy travellers, it is hardly necessary to give it here, the processes of mining and reduction being practically the same all over the world.
Frank and Fred obtained the following information relative to gold-mining in New Zealand, and especially in the region now under consideration:
"Gold-mining in New Zealand properly dates from 1861, when gold was discovered by Mr. Gabriel Read at Tuapeka, in the province of Otago. The existence of the precious metal was known nine or ten years before that date, it having been found at Coromandel by a Mr. Ring, who reported his discovery to the authorities at Auckland. Since 1861 it has been found in many places, and is now an important industry of the country. Some of the mines are wholly alluvial, or placer, diggings, others are wholly quartz-mines, which are called reefs in New Zealand and Australia, and others are combinations of alluvial and quartz mining.