Only & few years back, the Thames goldfield was Maori land, fern swamps and timber its vkfcffeature ; now it is a thriving-tsettlcment, the seat of thriving industries, so much having been accomplished in so short a time by the magic influence of gold discoveries. How the place has expanded, and is flourishing mightily, has been demonstrated in a variety of ways. It can boast of its shipbuilding j-ards, and only yester day a sample of the mechanical skill of one" of its builders arrived here in the shape of a substantial barquentine, fitted with auxiliary steam power, and named the Emu. She was built 011 the banks of the Kaeweranga river, by Mr Robert Stone, a shipwright of no mean ability, who has for many many years been associated with the Province of Auck land in that capacity. To Mr Stone belongs the credit of building the first steamer launched in the Colony. She was the old Governor Wvnyard—a vessel out of date, and almost out of mind' now, the year of her launching being 1851. Not only the hull but the en gines of that unique little boat—she was about 60ton» —were constructed in Auckland, and as was but natural in those days the "Wynyard was thought much of by the early settlers, and played a very good part in trading up and down the Tainaki river. Subse quently, in 1852, she was sent to Melbourne, and made a •• pot of money" for her owners- Messrs C. B. Stone, Gardiner, and Langford—in those good old cays. The last we heard of her was that she had sub sided into obscurity at the Tamar river, Launceston. Many other vessels have been turned .ut by Mr Stone since then—one of ihe latter being the Emu She was built to the order of Mr C. J. Stone, the builder's brother, expressly to run in the coal trade between the Bay of Islands and the Thames, but her capabili ties being above those of average colliers, she is occa sionally diverted into other chminels of trade, and now comes here with a full cargo of white pine timber—the product of a bush about eight miles up the Thames river, where is situated Mr Gibbon's saw-mill. The Emu is built upon the diagonal principle, is 131 tons register. Length, 125 ft. ; beam, 22ft 6in • depth of hold Bft. 