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Therefore a great many makeshifts are resorted to, which are in some cases the means of preventing a systematic plan of operations being afterwards carried on. The Premier Company is an instance of this. If the ground they are now working pays, it would leave a large margin of profit if worked in a systematic manner. The mine is so situated that a tunnel could be constructed on the level with the creek, when all the quartz above that level could be stoped out and run in trucks from the passes into the paddock, instead of being handled about four times. The cost of the additional men employed, and the cost of coals for working a winding-engine, &c, as at present, would soon amount to the cost of putting in a low tunnel; and, when once in, the advantage on the system of working would make quartz pay that cannot be taken out by the present method. The quartz lode in this mine is very hard. The manager informed me that it takes four hours to drill a hole 2ft. 6in. deep. This being the case, compressed-air rock-drills could be used with great advantage, especially where the lode is not of a great thickness. This company has lately purchased a crushing-battery from the Maryborough Quartz-mining Company, which consists of ten heads of stamps, 7cwt. each, and one Berdan. These are driven by an overshot water-wheel, 30ft. in diameter. At the present time they use quicksilver ripple-tables and blankets: but they propose doing away with the use of quicksilver, and adopting blankets entirely. The number of men employed by the company is sixteen. The quantity of quartz crushed from this mine during the year ending April last was 1,596 tons, which yielded 6980z. of gold; while the total yield from the mine has been 2,9210z. Lady Fair Company. —This company is working on the opposite side of the creek from the Premier Company, and at a higher elevation. They have a tunnel driven for about 610 ft. : 360 ft. of this is on. the line of reef. The only work being done at the present time is prospecting, on which two men are engaged. They formerly worked the reef on the surface and stoped the stone out for about 100 ft.; but nothing has yet been got of any importance in the level they are working on at present. Tipperary Company. —This company's mine is the best in this district. They have recently sunk an underlie-shaf t, following the dip of the lode, in the main level going in from the creek, to a depth of 312 ft., and commenced to open out levels from the bottom of this shaft in easterly and westerly directions. The underlie-shaft is 6ft. by 3ft. 6in., having partition for winding of 3ft. Bin. square, the other portion being used as a ladder-shaft for the men to get up and down to their work. The quartz is hauled up this shaft in a small truck or box capable of holding 7cwt. of stone. This box has wheels like a truck, and it is kept in position by rails fixed in the shaft. When the box is wound up to the top of the shaft another truck is run underneath it, and the quartz in the box is emptied into this truck from a trap-door which there is at the bottom of the box. The winding in this underlie-shaft is done by a water-balance erected outside the mine. This water-balance is a tank mounted on wheels, which runs on an inclined tramway the same length as the depth of the shaft where the winding takes place. When this tank is at the top of the incline it is filled with water, and the weight of the tank when filled is sufficient to bring about 7cwt. of stone in the box up the winding-shaft. When the tank arrives at the bottom of the incline there is an iron knob projecting which opens a valve in the tank, and allows the water to be discharged. The weight of the empty box in the winding-shaft is sufficient to haul up the empty tank to the top of the incline, to be again refilled with water, so as to bring up the next loaded box. The winding-rope, fin. in diameter, made of best plough-steel, is carried on pulleys in the main drive to the incline-shaft, where there is brake-gear erected so as to regulate the speed of winding. One man works the brake-gear ; and also, by levers attached to telegraph wire, the same man can shut off and on the water to fill the tank or water-balance when it is at the fop of the incline. This winding appliance is very simple, and every credit is due to the manager (Mr. Resta) for the manner in which the mining operations are carried on. But, although this mode of winding is simple, it is too slow a process, and only suitable for winding for a small party of men. In conducting larger mining operations it is only mere waste of money in constructing what may be termed a makeshift. This company has been at work for about eight years, and during that period the mining-manager informed me that nearly 15cwt. of gold had been taken out. Since then I have learned that the actual amount was 184,0000z. There are three distinct runs or shots of gold in this mine, all on the same line of reef. The eastern shot is about 130 ft. in length, the middle one 77ft., and the length of the western one has not yet been determined. It has been worked for 80ft., and still continues. The general direction of the reef is about 10° south of west, the strike being westerly, and the dip or underlie being northerly about lin 12. The width of the lode varies considerably: in some places it is only about 2ft. wide, while in others—as, for instance, at the bottom of the underlieshaft —the reef is 15ft. wide. The average yield of gold from the quartz hitherto crushed from this mine is about loz. per ton. This company has a crushing-battery consisting of ten heads of revolving stamps, 7cwt. each, one Berdan, and one Buddie, which is driven by a Whitlaw turbine water-wheel 3ft. in diameter. They use quicksilver in the stamp-boxes and have ordinary riffletables covered with copper plates. Afterwards the tailings go over 16ft. of blanket-tables. The blankets are washed out every hour into tubs, and the blanketings ground up in the Berdan, and thence go through an amalgamating Buddie. There is a large quantity of pyrites in this mine; but no effort has yet been made to save it beyond what is collected on the blanket-tables; and even some of the stuff that has gone through the Berdan and is put aside as waste product