Some of your reader*, I fear, do not give the Thames Goldfield a good name. “ All is not gold that glitters,” especially when the gold is represented by scrip. The far-famed Long Drive shares suddenly fell, two days ago, as low as £45, to the greatest astonish ment of many. This fall, however, did not last long, and the shares steadily rose again. It is explained by the fact of a large holder suddenly wishing to realise, and thereby glutting the market, at the same time that several of the officers of the 18th have been selling their shares, previous to leaving the colony. Notwithstanding the proportionately low prices at which shares of every kind are now quoted, and the un pleasant deficit experienced by shareholders who have to meet calls, together with a certain cessation of dividends, it must not be presumed either that the quartz has failed, or the gold become exhausted. We have here one of the richest goldfields in the world, and certainly one most grossly mis managed. Men whose opinion must be valued, from their experience of many years in other parts of the world in quartz mining pursuits, all agree on this point. The rich ness of the field they all admit, and the easy mode of obtaining the gold-bearing stone they do not dispute, but the development of the goldfield has been retarded, and even thrown back, owing to the want of experience displayed in the early part of the rush, by those legislating for our administering the field, and by those at work upon it. The leasing regulations are absurd ; an attempt

to amend them will, 1 believe, shortly be made. As they now stand, numbers of acres can be monopolised and kept from the reach of the work ing miner. Yet were these regulations strictly carried out, very few of the com panies could stand the expense, and with the exception of the Golden Crown and the Long Drive would soon collapse. The size of the ground held by the greater number of the companies is ridiculously small, and I feel convinced that unless amalgamated, or ex tended, the works upon such limited ground can never prove reproductive. What will remedy these serious evils, it is difficult to say. 