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the present time. The workers are said to have been unsuccessful in obtaining payable gold at depth below the surface. On the north-east side of the island an old adit level which had been driven to crosscut the main reef is being extended 25 ft., is now 231 ft. to the face, and still in hard country. A line through the bush from the main-reef outcrop crosses the adit, so that the main reef should have been cut ere now. Rich alluvial gold associated with quartz had been found on McKenzie's Beach in the vicinity of the outcrops of main reef and leader. Sunrise Gold-mine Company, Te Oneroa. —(19/5/1902) : Considerable prospecting and driving was done by this company in 1897-98. A level was driven 800 ft. on the eastern boundary of the Morning Star Claim, and a crosscut 300 ft. east, all in slate. No quartz met with. The New Star (late Morning Star) .Gold-mining Company, Te Oneroa (W. Lovell Davis, manager). —(19/3/1902) : The mine had been standing about a year when, on the Ist March last, it was let on tribute for twelve months to a party of six miners, who have sunk a winze 6 ft. by 3 ft. by 46 ft. in a block of stone left underfoot by the old company in No. 2 level. A small block of surface stone in the creek-bed between No. 1 level and No. 1a level has been stripped, and is being taken out. The tributers got their first cake of 32 oz. from 30 tons of stone on the 30th April last. When the mine was in work the stopes were filled in as stone was taken out, and during the period the mine was standing two men were kept on. Levels and passes have been maintained, and timber renewed where necessary. Air good ; rules posted ; plan to date. The mine is in excellent order and well conducted. The general trend of the reef is north-west and south-east, dipping to the west about lin 6 from the vertical. The reef outcrops on a steep hillside immediately behind the township, and has been driven on from five levels, the low level (No. 3) being considerably above sea-level. Paystone got from the mine has all been found on the hanging-wall, the stone ranging from 2 ft. to 6 in. in width. The main chute of stone was found to pinch out and become poorer going down, and No. 3 level was mainly driven in deadwork; going south the stone gave out at 1,056 ft. in No. 1 level, and Nos. 1 and Ia levels were extended 260 ft. and 200 ft. respectively in "dig" (mullock) and buck-reef, with occasional bands of barren quartz ; water making freely. Since the mine was started in 1895 up to 31st December, 1900, 13,590 tons of stone, yielding 12,525 oz. of gold, value £50,908, was obtained from the chute of stone worked. The efforts to find a new chute of stone being resultless, prospecting had been discontinued when the funds of the company became exhausted. Several cuddys (crosscuts) put in off No. 2 level proved the lode formation to be 40 ft. in width between the walls, patches of barren stone in mullock only being found ; an intrusive dyke of decomposed granite 20 ft. in thickness, running east and west, was crossed in all the levels, stone being cut out near the dyke, but rapidly made again. Tramways : Timber, &c, for the mine is conveyed uphill from the wharf by a carriage on an aerial ropeway (stationary). A 3 in. steel rope is mounted on trestles and securely anchored at the upper end with tension at beach, a l}in. steel endless rope being used for haulage; drum, 3 ft. diameter, driven by a Pelton wheel 2 ft. 6 in. diameter; water-pressure, 90 ft. vertical head. Battery material, coal, &c, are hauled to the battery-house from the wharf on an ordinary tramway by a steel flexible rope, the pulley on a counter-shaft being belt-driven from the main drivingshaft. Trucks of stone from the mine are lowered to the mill by a self-acting drum 4 ft. diameter tramway, three rails with meeting-place in centre. The compact little battery is in good order. Ten head of stamps (five heads 9001b. each and five heads 8001b. each) are driven by a 4 ft. 6 in. Pelton wheel under a vertical pressure of 250 ft. head. Pressure-pipes are reduced from 13 in. to 9 in. and 7 in. diameter. When water is scarce steam-power is substituted, being supplied by an under-type combined engine and boiler by Robey and Co. ; engine, 12-horse power ; steam-pressure used, 551b. per square inch, Westport coal being used. The tables are 21ft. in length by 12 ft. in width, the first drop being 6 in. to 7 ft., and the second drop 8 in. to 14 ft. length. Four berdans are used for treating blanketings, and ten berdans for tailings, which are conveyed by shoots direct to the berdans from the tables. Numerous assays of the tailings from the berdans gave an average loss of 1 dwt. of gold per ton of quartz crushed. The stamps were constructed by Thompson, of Castlemaine ; the berdans by Price, of Thames. New Alpha (late Alpha) Gold-mining Company, near Head of Sealers' Creek No. 1, Te Oneroa (Frank Junker). —(21/5/1902) : The shaft had been sunk on a blow of quartz near the junction of the slate and sandstone formations. Rich stone was got on the surface, and alluvial workings in the vicinity were highly payable, heavy alluvial gold intermixed with specimen quartz being obtained. Sinking and underground operations have proved most disappointing. The lodes to the south of the shaft contained very little non-payable stone; the lodes pinch out north, and underfoot the stone makes, but is almost barren. The shaft is 141 ft. in depth, 10ft. by 4 ft., divided into three compartments, the first being furnished with a cage for winding trucks of stone, the second for winding water, and the third as a ladder-way. The shaft is sunk on the No. 1 or eastern lode, which alone has proved payable. Nos. 1 and 2 lodes are 68 ft. apart at the shaft-bottom, but are rapidly coming together, going north. No. 1, north level, is driven 250 ft., the stone being pinched out at the face. All payable stone on this level has been stoped out. No work has been done on this level south, the shaft being sunk through a slide. At 84 ft. from the surface intermediate levels have been driven south 60 ft. on No. 1 lode and 100 ft. on No. 2 lode. No. 1 bottoms on the floor of the slide ; no stone. In No. 2, following up on the slide, stone is broken up and poor. The mine was let on tribute for twelve months as from the Ist February last. The tributers have sunk a winze 45 ft. on the hanging-wall of the No. 1 lode, north level, at 180 ft. from the shaft on a block of stone, which, when being driven, crushed 5 dwt. of gold to the ton. Going down the stone widened to 20 ft., and proved to be almost barren. A crosscut was driven 16 ft. from the hanging-wall, and a drive north 30 ft. half-way down the winze drove south 16 ft., all stone tested being unpayable. The country being hard, levels are standing in good order, mostly without timber. Heavy timber 15—C. 3.