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is what have become known as the " Macetown Reefs," in the Arrow District. The following are the na nes given to those already discovered and proved to be auriferous : — Claims Working. Idle. Miles Discovered. The Homeward-Bound line of reef ... ... 4 ... 2 ... 2| Cross Reef ... ... 2 ... 1 ... 2 Victor Emmanuel or Nuggety Reef ... ... 2 ... 2 ... 1 Victoria Reef ... ... 1 ... 0 ... f Tipperary Reef ... ... ... ... 1 ... 1 ... i Mackay's Reef ... ... 1 ... 1 ... 100 yards. There are other reefs known to contain gold, which have not yet been prospected nor taken up for work. There is one small crushing machine at work on these reefs, and three large batteries in the course of erection, but the difficulties of the roads to the reefs make it a great and tedious undertaking to convey machinery. I must say, however, the various companies have shown great energy and ingenuity in their efforts to get machinery on the ground speedily. The value of the plant erected and in the course of erection may be put down at £6,000, and may be taken as evidence of the belief by the miners in the payable nature of the reefs. The crushings already made have given li oz. to the ton : these have been all from the Homeward-Bound. About 300 tons of quartz were crushed, and the yield was 360 oz. Settlement. —The most of the available ground for cultivation in the Queenstown and Arrow Districts has been long ago settled on, with the exception of the Crown Terrace Block, and that, unfortunately, has been kept closed by various devices; but I think another season will see it thrown open and populated. On the outskirts of the Queenstown District, in the neighbourhood of Kingston and Nokomai, a good deal of settlement has taken place, and all the deferred-payment blocks that were thrown open have been absorbed. About 7,000 acres have been acquired in freehold in the districts during ihe year, chiefly by the purchase of land held under agricultural lease. New life seems to have been given to the farmers about Arrow and Queenstown by the sudden rise in wheat and the approaching completion of the Kingston Railway, and crop-growing, which almost had been abandoned for want of carnage to a market, has been largely gone into ; and there is only one opinion as to the Wakatipu District for wheat-growing —fhat it is the best in Qtago. In reference to the depasturing interests in the Lake District, it has long become evident to all that the commonage system is ruinous both to stock and stockholder, and the sooner the balance of ihe ground even now used as common pasturage, with the exception of a few thousand acres around each township or centre of population, is done away with, the better. I do not say this because of the success of ihe method of having small runs, for that method financially has rather been a failure to the Government, but that not on account of any fault of the system of divided pasturage, but from the fact of the runs having been put up to public auction, and unfortunately falling into the hands, in many cases, of persons ignorant of the business of sheep-farming ; and in other cases caused by the fever that raged, dining the high prices of wool, to obtain country at any price. 1 think all the surrenders of leases have been brought about by one or other of the above causes. This brings me to call in question the expediency, in all cases, of putting up the leases of the Crown lands to auction, although 1 fear it is the only system a Government could adopt, as doubtless the selection of tenants would lead 1o corruption in many ways. From another point of view, the small runs have been a success, as having introduced into the district a fine class of yeomen and settled them on ihe ground, and this will in a short time compensate for any loss that may have been meanwhile sustained. I have, &c, W. Laweence Simpson, The Under Secretary for Gold Fields, Wellington. AVarden.

No. 4. Mr. AVarden Cabew to the Under Secretary for Gold Fields. Sic, — Warden's Office, Lawrence, sth May, 1877. I have the honor to forward the statistical returns for the Tuapeka Gold Field for the year ending the 31st March last, and to report as follow s : — Mining. —The Blue Spur continues to be the source of the principal portion of the gold raised in this district; and while the yield from other parts of the gold field has decreased, through temporary causes, from that of former years, the Spur has contributed so largely that I am again enabled to report an increase in production over former years. The quantities carried from here by escort for the last three years have been as follow :— 1875 ... ... ... ... ... 19,744 oz. 1*76 ... ... ... ... ... 21,106 „ 1*77 ... ... ... ... ... 26,155 „ —thus showing the very satisfactory increase of 6,411 oz. over the year 1875, and 5,049 oz. over last year. The change in the meihod of working the ground, from ground-sluicing top to bottom—in fact, the gradual degradation and lemoval by water-power of a mountain spur in which immense quantises of the soil removed contained lit Ileor no gold—io that of tunnelling in, and crushing under ■tampers, only auriferous strata, is no doubt the cause of the present prosperity. It has led also to decrease of litigation, as the deposit of tailings, once a most prolific source of dispute, is so much reduced that no damage from ihat cause is now suffered. I am. however, convinced that the present manner of working the land is merely a temporary means of staving off, for a few years it may be. an Undertaking of some magnitude—ihe construction of a deep channel to carry away tailings from alow level of the Spur, and wnhout which not only will it be impossible to work the whole of the lowest and richest strata, but also hundreds of thousands of yards ot soil that can only be profitably worked by