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their top covered by a heavy hard iron bend, turning the stream at right angles through 18in. delivery-pipes 100 ft. in length. These are carried on the trestle-work, and discharge into the groundsluice. The down-pipes are carried along on the trestle-work, side by side with the delivery and uptake pipes, and underneath the platform carrying them a galvanised iron "roof" catches any drippings, and carries them to the front of trestle-work, where they are collected and carried below in a canvas hose. Great difficulty was experienced in opening out from this elevator. A high bank of unpayable ground, chiefly clay, close by where the elevator had been erected, began to slip almost as soon as work was started, threatening to carry away the trestle-work, which was only saved by filling in with gravel to a depth of 30ft., and putting in a suction elevator at the 60ft. level to remove the " slip," which was 70ft. in depth, and contained 17,000 cubic yards. This occurred twice, one of the legs of the lower trestle being twice snapped, the down-pipes torn asunder, and some of the eastings fractured. It was only by the exercise of considerable ingenuity that the structure was saved, the slips got rid of, and an opening-out effected. The w T ash is now being stripped through this elevator. When that is done to a sufficient extent another elevator to lift 50ft. will be put down ; this will lift to the other one. Notwithstanding the delays consequent upon the ereotion of and opening out from the new elevator, the yield of gold has been 7800z., and, when the frost stopped the work, washing-up had not been completed. About 200oz. more was expected to be taken out within a few days. From six to nine men are employed. Scandinavian Water-race Company. —This company has not washed up during the year. Most of its water has been sold. It has made a start elevating the deep ground stripped in former years, but had not during the summer and autumn enough water to work constantly and supply its customers. Its elevator is after the pattern of Mr. Ewing's ; the present lift is 30ft., but much deeper elevating will yet have to be resorted to. This company should give excellent returns for a number of years from the ground now being operated upon. The Scandinavian Company now supply Mr. Bwing with most of the water he uses on his Kildare Hill mine, the United M. and E. Company having been unable during the dry weather of last summer to do so. Prom four to eight men are employed. United M. and E. Company. —This company has been unfortunate. It began last spring to elevate some very good ground in its Surface Hill property. This ground adjoins that spoken of above as now being elevated by the Scandinavian Company. It had been stripped in former years, and, from its known richness, it was expected that a few months' work would yield 300oz. to 400oz.; but the plant set up was too paltry, and it was set up in the wrong place. The best of the season was let pass, and the dry weather found them but little advanced. Just as it set in, an extensive slip began to move from the hillside upon their elevator, and, no water being available to wash the slipping material away as it came, the elevator got broken up and covered, and the taking-out of the ground will be but little farther forward this spring than last. Prom the Blue Gully Claim the year's result was close upon 300oz. From six to ten men employed. Muddy Creek Tailings Channel. —This is owned by the last-mentioned company. Another portion—about a mile and a half—of this channel was washed up this year; result, 2820z. This gave a profit of £750 over cost of taking out. The cleaning-out has also assisted the deepening of the channel. It has more fall than the tail-races of the company using it, and when the water is confined, and stones removed, the grinding action of the tailings cuts away the clay formation through which it runs. This channel could be brought at a working level over 30ft. deeper at its head than it now is, but considerable trouble arises, as it cuts down from extensive slips of clay coming in from the sides, and the deepening process is necessarily very slow. St. Bathan's Water-race Company. —The new ground to which this company shifted, as mentioned in last report, has turned out very poorly—worse than that left. It has given but very small wages. Five men employed. Eagle and Gray, and P. Tiernan and Company. —Both these parties have had a bad year—■ deficient water-supply, and ground worked poor. The number of miners buying water, and working in a small way, is year by year diminishing, and their profits getting less. Garty and Gallagher. —This party have very good ground at what is known as the " Lagoon," near Surface Hill, but their stripping is entirely pipeclay, and their plant not such as enables them to get rid of it sufficiently fast. St. Bathan's Channel Company. —The dry season has greatly retarded work. During the year 187oz. have been got, about sufficient to pay current expenses. The company had previously got considerably behind, but it is expected when washing-up is completed that its debts will be considerably reduced. All the ground that could contain any gold, the getting of which would lighten cost of construction, has now been got rid of, and future work must be provided for by an increase in the capital of the company, which was long ago all called up. An effort is to be made to obtain a Government subsidy on future expenditure. Vinegar Hill. The new ground mentioned in the last report has been worked into and well tested. The seams of white drift run in the direction of St. Bathan's Basin, three miles distant; but, within 50 yards of where first struck, where every yard they were making was stronger and richer, they were cut off by a fault, which had thrown the deposit upward and forward. The upward movement had exposed the deposit to denuding agencies that had removed all trace of the deposit on the other side of the fault, while the forward movement had pushed it in a north-westerly direction, where it is overlaid by a great depth of the banded clays of more recent formation that overlie the white drift almost everywhere in this locality. A cutting has been made about 500 yards distant, on the other side of the fault, and the white drift found. It contains a little gold, but hardly—so far—enough to pay; but the prospecting cut has hardly got far enough across the formation to cut all the seams. In this formation the best gold seldom lays on the bottom—often in seams 50 yards from it. Mr. Ewing