GOLD MINES—A NEW CITY—NATIVE DEFENCES—KAURI FOREST—A HARD RIDE—KATI KATI—TAURANGA GATE PAH, AND CEMETERY—OHINEMUTU—A VOLCANIC REGION. GRAHAMSTOWN, THAMES GOLD-FIELDS, _March 23, 1877_. MY DEAR ALEXA,—You see I have struck quite a new line of country—very different to peaceful Kawau, which we left a fortnight ago, returning to Auckland for a change. Now Lady Gordon and the children have once more gone back to the isle, but I determined to see something of the country, so in the first instance came here to see real gold-diggings. Five hours by steamer brought me to this great baby town, where kindest welcome awaited me in the home of Captain Fraser, the warden of the gold-fields, an Inverness man, who has lived out here for many years, and is immensely respected. His wife comes from Fife, and I find we have several friends in common. Though a gentle little lady, she must be a woman of rare pluck, for all through the Maori war, when her husband had contracts for commissariat, &c., she herself had, in his absence, to superintend all the farrier and blacksmith work, do what she could to prevent the men from drinking (in which task she was often unsuccessful), and look after the packing and despatching of a whole regiment of pack-horses. She had also to keep all the accounts, and attend to many other matters. At other times she was left quite alone—that is, with only one maid-servant, and was warned every night that it would probably be her last. These are the sort of incidents you gather in those new countries, in the history of lives that seem so quiet! I am amused to find that the gold-fields here are really great rocky mountains, and that there is not a scrap of level ground in the place, except what has been artificially constructed. So, after all, I have not found my way to “the diggings” as I supposed. I find that term only applies to the alluvial gold-fields, where gold has been washed down from the mountains. Here it is all embedded in quartz-veins running through the rocks, and needs hard work to get it out. Eight years ago this place was all wild New Zealand bush—the mountains densely wooded to the shore. Now not a tree remains (save those planted in gardens); and the well-scraped hills are all burrowed, as if a colony of rabbits had been at work. When first gold was found here there was a grand rush, and this great town sprang up. Then it fell off; but within the last three weeks such a quantity of gold has been found in the Moanatairi mine, that the place is once more in a ferment, and large fortunes have been lost and won in a day over mining shares.