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Accidents. One fatal accident occurred during the year. This was at the Waihi Mine on the 29th October, when William Oscar Mair, single, twenty-three years of age, was killed by a fall of rock. Deceased and a mate were working on a sub-level below No. 11 level, trucking ore from a shrinkage stope their party had completed breaking out. At the time they were drawing from two end passes on the stope, about 10 ft. apart. Deceased had not got sufficient ore from his pass to fill his truck, and had climbed into the pass to see if any more rock was available, when some material fell from the hanging-wall side, crushing his head and chest and causing instantaneous death. An inquest was held before the Coroner and jury of six, and a verdict returned that deceased met his death accidentally and that no blame was attachable to any one. Two other accidents occurred through falls of rock, one at Thames and the other at Coromandel. In the former, George Snelgar, a prospector under the Unemployment Board's scheme, had started to take a leading stope off a drive put in on a small leader when a slab fell from the hanging-wall side fracturing his leg. The other accident occurred to another Unemployment Board prospector, W. G. Perry. He was working with his party in a drive at Waitekuri, when a piece of rock fell from the side of the drive, fracturing his leg. Three accidents were reported as the result of the use of explosives, the injured men being S. McClinchie, employed at the Talisman - Dubbo Mine ; H. Thomas, employed at the Golden Dawn Mine ; and John Boggs, employed at the Waihi Mine. With regard to the two first mentioned, each of the accidents occurred while the men were inserting fuses in detonators, explosions occurring which cost each of the men the loss of several fingers or portions of them. No information could be gathered tending to lead to the conclusion that the accidents were the results of any defects in the detonators. At the time of the accident to John Boggs, he was, with a mate, employed at trucking ore from a pass on a shrinkage stope on No. 10 level. The pass hung up, and in attempting to get it to run again, the injured man, who was a miner of many years' experience, got into an empty truck and proceeded to fire a small charge on one of the boulders of quartz that caused the hang up. He had lit the fuse and was putting the stopper boards in preparatory to moving away, when the material in the pass started unexpectedly to run. Before he could get out of the truck the material had pinned one of his feet, and before this could be released the charge he had placed on the rock, and which had fallen into the truck with the falling material, exploded close to his imprisoned foot, shattering it so badly that it had to be amputated at the ankle. The only other serious accident of any kind reported was to a miner named J. Smith, employed at the Golden Dawn Mine. He was employed at the time underground shaving a wooden plug with a tomahawk, when the latter slipped and cut off two fingers of his left hand. Prospecting. Practically all the effort in this direction was under the Unemployment Board's schemes at Thames and Coromandel. In the former locality an average of about 103 men was employed, and in the latter about 100. In the Thames area the subsidized men won 371 oz. 7 dwt. gold, valued at £2,100, and in the Coromandel area 205 oz. were won, valued at £1,164, but probably an additional £1,000 worth of gold was won at Thames by men who had been originally helped under the scheme to locate veins on which they were working. In neither district was any discovery made of importance. WEST COAST INSPECTION DISTRICT (E. J. Scoble, Inspector of Mines). Quartz-mining. Buller County. Britannia Mine.—W. McLellan, manager, and five men employed. There has been a fair amount of prospecting and development work undertaken on this property, with little to report in the way of discoveries. The battery crushed 327 tons of ore for a yield of 68 oz. 7 dwt. 12 gr. of gold, of which 58 oz. 16 dwt. was recovered by amalgamation, and 9 oz. 11 dwt. 12 gr. by cyanidation, the value of the whole being £428 18s. 3d. The total worth of the yield since the commencement of operations amounts to £2,527 3s. Inangahua County. Blackwater Mine. —R. A. Stewart, manager, and two hundred and sixteen men employed. In all, 2,393 ft. of development work was carried out on this property, and of this, 25 ft. is represented by driving on the Snowy River area. No less than 74-3 per cent, of the total distance driven, risen, and sunk was done on reef, which is an excellent record for this mine. No. 10 level, south, was advanced 279 ft. in country rock, with nothing of note to record. No. 11 level, north, was extended for a distance of 421 ft., practically all being on reef, with an average value of 11-06 dwt. of gold per ton, over a width of 22 in. A fault (probably the Prohibition fault) was disclosed in the face at the point mentioned, and this is expected to continue for 120 ft. before the next block of stone is reached. No. 12 level, north, progressed for a distance of 694 ft., of which 638 ft. disclosed reef having an average value of 11-64 dwt. of gold over a width of 23 in. A short distance only separates the end of this drive from the Prohibition area. The Prohibition shaft was sunk to No. 12 level (Blackwater shaft), or from a depth of 1,925 ft. to a depth of 2,225 ft. An aerial tramway, capacity 25 tons per hour, one mile in length, of the mono-cable type, erected between this shaft and the battery, will be used for transportation purposes at a later date. Tramway gradients are in favour of the load, and produce an excess tension that is equivalent to 16 horse - power, which is dispensed or regulated, through gearing, by a fan. It is proposed to equip the Prohibition shaft with a 500-horse-power modern-type electric winding-engine. The battery crushed 31,862 tons of ore for a yield of 16,103 oz. 8 dwt. of gold, of which 12,865 oz. 8 dwt. was obtained by amalgamation, 1,902 oz. 5 dwt. by cyanidation, and 1,335 oz. 15 dwt. by the treatment of concentrates ; the value of the whole being £130,471 6s. The total yield of gold since the commencement of operations amounts to 498,551 oz. 19 dwt., valued at £2,199,825 17s. 2d. Alexander Mine. —J. Bolitho, manager, and thirty-five men employed. Development operations and oreextractions were confined to the McVicar section for the year, and consist of the following: No. 3 level north was extended for a distance of 30 ft., mostly on stone of a bouldery nature. There is nothing but reef track showing in the face. No. 3 intermediate level was driven on reef over a distance of 230 ft. Work is in progress there, and 4 ft. of stone is to be seen in the face. Stoping operations indicate that this reef does not live to a greater height than 8 ft. above the level on the extreme north end of the block. No. 4 level was driven a distance of 220 ft. north of the main crosscut, the last 30 ft. being on reef track, with occasional boulders of stone showing. The country rock carries a lot of water, and the level face looks promising. Stoping was done on No. 4 level, and in No. 3 intermediate level. It was found in stoping above No. 4 level that the stone operated on was not identical with that got on No. 3 intermediate level. Crosscutting from No. 4 level stope (in view of same) was then undertaken, with the result that an ore-body was disclosed at a distance of 14 ft. This lode was driven on for 90 ft., from which point a connection was made with the intermediate above. The stone averaged 4 ft. in width. The race mentioned in my last annual report, together with the work of erecting an 110-horse-power impulse water-wheel, direct-coupled to a three-phase A.C. (electric) generator set, was completed. A 70-horse-power motor and a " Brotherhood " air compressor were installed at the mine. The plant last mentioned is used for operating three power-drill machines and for ventilating-purposes. A four-panel "Edwards" roaster, for treating battery concentrates, was erected and put into commission during

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