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the several gullies that the water had previously been carried over, the fluming in every instance being in such a decayed state that it was impossible to repair it. The deviations that have been made shorten the length of race and avoid most of the deep gullies, but where these occur iron syphons have been placed instead of fluming. There are two of these syphons, one at Butcher's Gully and another at Micky Free's Gully; the former is about 304 ft. in length, 2ft. 6in. in diameter, and made of 12-gauge iron; latter is 154 ft. long, 2ft. 2in. in diameter, and made of 14 gauge iron. The ground this water-race at present commands is getting gradually worked out, and until a syphon is constructed from Argyle Terrace to Ballarat Terrace, capable of carrying about 10 heads of water, there is little prospect of this water-race giving fair returns. The dam at the head of the race has been enlarged, and when full now covers an area of about 400 acres. The working of this race during last year resulted in a loss of £47 3s. This is due in a great measure to the works that were in progress, and not being able to supply water continually; but now the works are all new (with the exception of the syphon from Argyle Terrace to Ballarat Terrace alluded to above) and of a substantial character, so that the cost of maintenance will be very small in future. There is no large permanent supply of water in this district: almost the whole of it is. collected by catch-water drains and dams. The Buller County Council, with subsidy from Government, has constructed the following roads and tracks : — Boatl from Candlelight Flat to Deep Greek.-— This road is constructed with easy gradients, but is too narrow for dray traffic, which is a great inconvenience to those parties who require sawn timber, &c, from Charleston to the top of the hill near Deep Creek, as it necessitates the timber being unloaded at Candlelight, and brought up the remainder of the distance by sleighs. Boad, Orawaiti Lagoon to North Terrace. —This piece of road has done away with a long stretch of bridging which was formerly across the Orawaiti Lagoon, and gives a good line of communication with the North Terraces. Track, Bazorback to Paparoa Bange. —This is merely a prospecting track, with the bush felled and cleared to enable the miners to get on to the back ranges to prospect during the summer months. Track from Seatonville to Larrikins'. —This track commences at the end of the present constructed track on the south side of the Mokihinui River, and follows the sideling through the gorge up the Mokihinui River to Specimen Creek. A bush line from that point is likewise cleared for about one mile further up the river towards Larrikins'. This is the only track in the country that has not been fairly constructed, which may be accounted for by the great anxiety to rush the track through quickly, in order to keep the miners in this district that came from other places to the rush that took place in December last at Larrikins' Creek. However, the track as it is at present is not even a good foot-track, and certainly would be a dangerous one to travel on for an extremely nervous man carrying a swag : still it is a great saving of time and labour to be able to go through this gorge at all, as the high and precipitous range that formerly had to be gone over occupied about half a day. The Government have constructed a good horse-track from Coal Creek to the Mokihinui reefs at Seatonville, which will be a great advantage to tho miners and mining companies that are at work in this locality, and will enable them to get machinery and supplies to their claims. This district has the same appearance as the Lyell District, and the same hard slate occurs where the quartz lodes are found. Some very rich specimens of gold in quartz are got in the Red Queen Company's mine, but the lode is narrow, from 6in. to 15in. in width, and, though well defined, the hard nature of the walls leads one to suspect that the lode will cut out as it goes down. However, the company has got a quantity of apparently good stone stacked ready to send to the battery as soon as a wiretramway has been constructed across the Mokihinui River. This company and the Mokihinui Company have repaired and refitted up an old battery that was used here some years ago. It has ten heads of stamps, and will be driven by an overshot Water-wheel. When this plant is completed it will give an opportunity to three additional mining companies—the Guiding Star, the Comet, and the Golden Crown —to have their quartz properly tested. The quartz that is being got near the surface may pay for crushing, but, until such time as the lodes are followed into the hill and found at a considerably deeper level, it is not wise to incur a large expenditure in erecting crushing machinery to work them. Wakamabina.—The alluvial gold-workings are principally in the bed of the Wakamarina River, and in the several creeks and gullies leading into the same : and the quartz-workings in the range on the eastern side of the river near Deadhorse Creek. The principal river-workings are the Gorge Company and an English company. The former has been engaged for about two years in cutting a channel and turning the river, to enable them to work its original bed, in a gorge directly below the junction with Deep Creek. They have al2 horse-power steam-engine and pumping gear for working ordinary common lift-pumps; but they have so far been unable to contend with the water, and have never yet got to the bottom. They have recently contracted with a party of miners to pump out the water in the gorge, which is confined between two dams, and to keep the water down for three days afterwards, for £400, in order to enable them to test whether there is a sufficient quantity of gold to pay for working. The English company have taken up a portion of the riverbed below Deadhorse Gully, and have erected an undershot water-wheel to drive two Cahforman pumps to drain the ground. The machinery and appliances were all completed at the time of my visit, but the water-wheel was not working satisfactorily. The quartz-workings are confined principally to the Golden Bar Company's mine; they have driven on the reef for about 200 ft., and the width of the lode is about Bft. This company has over 200 tons of quartz stacked ready for crushing, which the mine manager informed me would average about 7dwt. of gold per ton. I brought away samples of quartz from this mine from different places in the drive along the lode, four of which were brought to Wellington, and tested by Dr. Hector,, and the result was 2dwt. 4gr. per ton from one sample, and ldwt. 3gr. per ton from another, while there was no gold in two of the samples. I tested, likewise, a stone at Havelock, taken promiscuously from the paddock where

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