221

C.—3

SUMMARY OF WORKS CONSTRUCTED— continued.

It will be seen from the foregoing statement that works to the value of £102,915 were authorised during the past year, as against £35,782 for the previous year, whilst the expenditure during the period referred to was £44,771, as against £31,922 for the year previous, leaving the liabilities on works authorised and in progress on the 31st March last to be £69,616. The actual cost of works undertaken, completed, and in progress during the last fourteen years that votes for this purpose have been under the direct control of the Mines Department for the development of the goldfields has been £616,351, out of which the Government has expended £424,813 in subsidies to local bodies and direct grants for the construction of the different works, whilst £191,538 has been contributed by local bodies and prospecting associations. In furnishing the foregoing report it has been my endeavour to follow the lines adopted in preceding reports. In consequence of my appointment being made in the middle of the year it was beyond my power to make a personal inspection of all the mines and note the special requirements in the different districts throughout the colony. Quartz-mining having attracted the chief attention of the investing public, reports on that branch of the industry have been prominently dealt with, and I have advanced opinions based on past experience respecting the success, probable advancement, and permanency of the profitable mining and treatment of ores. The introduction of capital, which is being devoted to further develop the mines in the more important mining districts, and to carry on explorations in the lately-discovered quartz reefs, will further extend the area of production, and the effective nature of the machinery which is being introduced, by lessening the cost of production and extraction, should increase the returns of gold. The alluvial deposits, the river-beds, and the accumulations of auriferous drift which occupy such extensive areas throughout the west coast and the southern portions of the Middle Island will in future receive that notice their importance warrants, but to which, through force of circumstances, I have been unable to direct as much attention in the present report as I should wish. Dredging operations are being conducted with profit in Otago and Southland, and there are numerous places where the gravels on the higher lands contain sufficient gold to pay if water were available for sluicing operations to be carried on. In order to render alluvial workings, hydraulic sluicing, and dredging more profitable an increased water-supply is necessary, and without doubt there is room for the investment of capital in the construction of water-races and dredges. The mining industry generally would at present appear to be in a more satisfactory condition than it has been for many years past, and I fully expect that by the judicious expenditure of the capital which has been directed to this colony towards the expansion of mining it will be my pleasing duty next year to report a continued advancement in all branches of the industry in New Zealand. I have, &c, Geo. Wilson, Inspecting Engineer.

Nature of Works. Total Cost of Construction, or Amount authorised to be expended. Expenditure, by Amount of way of Subsidy or i Liability by Mines otherwise, by ! Department on Mines Department. I Works in Progress. I SUMMABY. £ s. d. 245,854 7 0 141,050 15 7 6,146 9 10 67,106 1 11 71,560 15 11 435 15 9 20,827 2 6 29,431 9 3 5,170 11 4 1,342 8 9 325 8 1 800 0 0 500 0 0 25,500 0 0 300 0 0 £ s. d. 205,553 5 5 75,916 13 9 4,759 6 2 21,469 15 7 67,258 10 3 285 15 9 20,827 2 6 19,948 9 1 3,428 11 4 742 8 9 325 8 1 800 0 0 500 0 0 2,697 14 5 300 0 0 £ s. d. 49,708 19 11 8,370 15 2 Roads on goldfields Subsidised roads and tracks Subsidised roads and tracks other than on goldfields Prospecting Water-races Wharves Schools of Mines Drainage-channels Diamond-drills Treatment of ores Tracks to open up mineral lands Artesian-well boring, Maniototo Plains Repairing flood damages Prospecting deep levels Resumption of land 13,008 17 3 4,193 8 7 ! 5,17316 3 22,802 5 7 616,351 5 11 424,813 1 1 103,258 2 9