11

C.—2

Kanieri and Rimu. A considerable number of miners are still employed in the vicinity of the Blue Spur, Kanieri, Back Creek, and Rimu. At the former place Mr. Boys has constructed a drainage adit-level from the valley of the Arahura River for a distance of about one mile. After being engaged for seven years in the construction of this work, it is said that he has come on to good gold-bearing wash-drift, which is likely to repay him for all his labour. At Kanieri there are only a few miners employed, the chief mining operations being carried on at Back Creek and Rimu, some of the hydraulic-sluicing claims having been paying fairly well for working; but the supply of water is very limited. Several of the claims on the new rush on Seddon's Terrace, Rimu, are now worked from adit-levels driven in from the front of the terrace, facing the valley of the Hokitika River, but the ground generally is held to be very poor. It is only by being able to work their claims constantly that the miners can make even small wages. During the last year the Prospecting Association discovered gold on the rise of the terrace alongside the road going through the Township of Rimu, and several shafts have been sunk. Here sufficient gold was found in the drift to warrant the driving-out of the ground in the auriferous layer. The association have also put down 115 bore-holes between the Mahinapua Creek and the ocean-beach with the view of striking an auriferous black-sand lead, but they were not successful in finding one. There is a large field in this locality on which prospecting operations could be carried on, but the great depth of drift gravels on the main bottom prevents individual miners attempting work of this character, the expense being great, owing to the probability of striking water in the alluvial drift deposits before reaching the bed-rock. It is only by the united efforts of the whole of the miners in a district that prospecting the deep ground can be successfully accomplished. Ross. This was at one time one of the busiest places on the West Coast where mining operations were carried on, and it is the only field in the colony where eight different gold-bearing layers of wash-drift have been passed through and no main bottom yet reached. It is a field of considerable interest, from the fact that river-worn gravel, having highly-auriferous layers of drift through it, is found over 200 ft. below the present sea-level. Fossil remains of gigantic fish have been found at a height of at least 200 ft. above the present sea-level, showing that the ground in this vicinity has been elevated and depressed at different periods. A considerable quantity of gold was obtained from the deep levels at Ross, but the water to be contended with in working the ground was too great for the pumping machinery. For several years the workings on these lower levels have been abandoned. They are now confined to ground which can be drained by a tunnel tail-race, constructed from near the ocean-beach. There are still a good fewminers employed in this locality, but the principal gold-producing claims are the Mont dOr and the Ross United. During last year 3,7900z. gold was obtained, representing a value of £15,161. Although the Westland District extends for over two hundred miles south of Ross, there are only a few miners scattered here and there on the ocean-beaches and gullies near the sea-coast; and until this part of the country is more opened up by roads and tracks, the miners living near the principal fields will not be inclined to prospect the southern part of this district. Recently information has reached me that gold of an apparently payable character has been found in the vicinity of Mount Rangitoto, in a large bed or band of conglomerate, composed of soft granitic or gueissic rock, which is likely to prove payable for working with suitable appliances. Otago. The returns of gold from alluvial mining for last year were about the same as the yield from the West Coast ; the quantity obtained from Otago being 74,8610z., representing a value of about £301,351. A large portion of the Otago District is of a very old quartzoseschist formation, and, where there is alluvial drift-wash overlying this formation it generally contains gold. A vast extent of the country being wholly denuded of timber—if ever it had been covered with forest —exposes the surface of the ground to view, and renders the prospecting of these drifts comparatively easy. The topographical character of the country, however, with generally large masses of quartzose-schist rocks projecting above the surface, especially on sidling ground, makes it an expensive undertaking to construct water-races at high elevations. In this respect the construction of water-races is far more costly than on the West Coast; and, wherever fluming has to be used, the cost of the timber and its transit from the coast is a great consideration. I will now refer to the workings in various gold-mining centres in this district.