103

C.—3

race is paved with stones, and is cleaned up once a year. As showing the difficulty of saving fine gold with this class of tail-race, at the last wash-up (annual) about 2 dwt. of gold was got in the bottom box of the race (720 ft.). I drew Mr. Ferris's attention to one part of the face which was practically vertical, and looked dangerous. Four men are at work. Thomson and Party (Norwegian Claim), Waitahuna Gully (G. Thomson, manager). —(7/2/1900) : Two elevators in separate paddocks, having separate lines of service-pipes, one 300 ft. head of pressure, and the other 240 ft. Time worked, sixteen hours per day. Water, by a race forty miles long, is brought from Waitahuna heights. The ground has been worked twice previously by hand-labour. There is only sufficient water to work one elevator at a time, so while one is working a paddock the other elevator and plant are being shifted to a new paddock. Sixteen men are employed. Island Block Gold-dredging and Sluicing Company (W. Lake, manager).—(6/3/1900) : One paddock of about an acre being worked. One shift of men picking up and cleaning bottom. One nozzle in use, one elevator 70 ft. and a " shooting-gallery " on the bottom, as the face is dipping from the elevator. At night the water is used for pumping out the old paddock, which is filled up during the day. The water-supply is low, owing to the dry season and the leakage on the line of pipes from the penstock to the claim. The lead joints in use having proved a failure, the new proprietors intend to replace them with flanged joints. Several hundred feet of fluming is also to be renewed, after which it is anticipated that two elevators will be kept going steadily night and day, which will provide employment for twenty men, instead of only six men as at present. Bobert Stewart, Island Block. —(6/3/1900) : Cleaning out dam and race, and getting ready to start when water is more plentiful. Keep-it-Dark Gold-mining Company, Nevis (J. H. Robertson, manager). —(12/3/1900): Sinking and intend to drive and block out on Galvin's Terrace. Shaft down 35 ft., and the party expect to bottom at 70ft., on the lead being worked in the sluicing claim (Robertson and party's). Six men. In the Nevis the water is frozen for about two months in the winter, so that elevating is impossible, and this claim is proposed to be worked as a stand-by. A shed has been built over the mouth of the shaft, so that the stuff brought up can be stacked, and washed in the spring after the thaw sets in. The party will thus be able to work on their own claims all the year round. Our Mutual Friend Hydraulic Elevating and Sluicing Company, Nevis (Masters and Adie). — (12/3/1900) : Water brought in from Commissioners' Creek, three miles, and from Deep Creek, two miles and a half. Main line, two 9 in. pipes joined at the bottom, each 1,000 ft. in length. Servicepipes, 7 in., under 400 ft. head of pressure. Elevating, 33 ft.; ground dips into the flat, carrying a very good sample of rough gold on the bottom. Four men at work. Bobertson and Party, Nevis. —(l 2/3/1900) : This claim is similar to and next to Masters and Adie's claim. Race is seven miles long. 1,500 ft. of 9 in. pipes are in use. Elevating, 40 ft., under 360 ft. head of pressure. Boxburgh Amalgamated Gold-mining Company (Limited), (J. H. Waigth, manager). — (17/3/1900): Two paddocks being worked. Two elevators, that in No. 1 paddock having a double lift. First lift, 21 ft., discharging into boxes 130 ft. long by 3 ft. wide. Second lift, 26 ft. ; boxes, 84 ft. long by 3 ft. wide. The experience of the manager is that nine-tenths of the gold is saved in the first 50 ft. of the first set of boxes, only 2 dwt. or 3 dwt. being got on the mats of the secondlift boxes at the end of a six-months run. The gold is fine and flaky, resembling bran and pollard mixed, but has been getting rougher of late. The face of the claim is generally about 65 ft. high; 30 ft. of silt on top is stripped and blown back into the old paddocks. The wash runs about 35 ft. deep river-gravels, generally resting on the schist reef. Twenty-two men are employed. This company has a party of four men prospecting at Lake Onslow with boring-rods in a quartzdrift resembling the Matakanui deposit. W. J. Harvard is manager of the prospecting party. Stewart and Party, Lake Onslow.- —(12/3/1900) : Hydraulic elevating 35 ft. on the line of drift exposed in the dam by the action of the water baring a face showing clays and gravel. Face, 25 ft.; 3 ft. of surface, alluvial on top. The bottom is a kind of mudstone containing blocks of quartz conglomerate. Water is obtained from the Pinelheugh Mountains. Four men employed when water is plentiful. Loudon and Party, Boxburgh. —(l7/3/1900): Working two claims, one elevating and the other ground-sluicing. Owners are floating the claim into a dredging company. Big Beach Hydraulic Elevating Company, Shotover. —(26/3/1900): No one about. Not working, owing to shortage of water. Arrow Flat Hydraulic Elevating and Gold-mining Company, Arrowtown (James Martin). — (27/3/1900): Almost ready for starting work ; erecting elevator. Boxes finished, and water ready for use. Race, including siphons, five miles in length. Pressure-line, 1,000 ft. Pipes, 24 in. at top and 18 in. at the bottom ; 15 in. and 9 in. driving-lines, under 600 ft. head of pressure. Expect to start in a day or two. This claim takes in the bed of the Arrow River immediately opposite the town, and, as the miners in the early days were unable to bottom in places, rich returns are expected. The race, however, is brought in over very broken country, and considerable difficulty may be experienced in keeping the claim steadily supplied with water. Dredging. This branch of mining has now assumed considerable magnitude, and most of the rivers and flats in this district known to be auriferous have been pegged off. Many new companies have been floated for the purpose of working the claims. A large proportion of the claimholders are having their dredges built as rapidly as the congested state of the foundries and engineering-works can supply machinery. Timber for pontoons (principally kauri, hardwood, and ironbark) is arriving somewhat more rapidly than the ironwork, and it occasionally happens that the pontoons are finished several weeks before the machinery comes to hand. There is, however, a tendency on