H.—3

renovated soil, quickset hedges, freehold lands, and more pasture for grazing purposes, which is much needed to reduce the price of beef and mutton. The breeding of horses is quite neglected in this district. The cold climate may partly be the cause of small stock, but their weedy description arises from the ignorance and indifference of the stockowners to improvement in breeding and stud importations. They seem to forget the great service of the horse flb man. Great cattle are scarce and very dear, the butcher having to scour the country for 70 or 100 miles to keep the shops open ; and the sheep, which are all merinos (I hope), look scraggy, and starved. I hope the Government will now consider an appeal I have made so often to introduce a law that will provide for the utilizing the soil by the agriculturalist without interfering with the miners—that land known as mining reserve and auriferous may produce its crops, and give employment to willing men, who do not object to be removed if they stand in the way of mineral development. The Crown Terrace (Arrow), if taken up when I proposed that it should be resurveyed and opened, in 1872, would now be a thriving settlement; and many a man who has left this place, with one, two, and three thousand pounds in his pocket, would have been there to this day if he had been permitted. I regret exceedingly that my suggestions have been disregarded. The export of gold from the district has been about 10,504 oz. 8 dwts. and 14 grs. The revenue. £4,788 175., including £1,350 carried from here and paid into the office at Queenstown in error. Eeventte t& Detail. Gold Fields Eevenue (General) ... ... ... ... £3,870 1111 Land Purchase ... ... ... ... ... ... 699 0 0 Eesident Magistrate's Fees ... ... ... ... ... 219 5 1 £4,788 17 0 I herewith attach, filled up. the statistical returns required. I will not vouch that the mining plant returns are even approximate, but I have taken trouble to approach correctness. I have, &c, H. A. Stratford, The Under Secretary for Gold Fields, Wellington. Warden.

No. 3. Mr. "Warden Cabew to the Udder Secretary for G-old Fields. Sir, — "Warden's Office, Lawrence, 10th April, 1876. In forwarding the anuual statistical returns for the Tuapeka district for the year ending 31st March, 1876, I have again to remark that in respect of gold mining nothing of unusual importance has occurred for me to comment upon ; but in the direction of agricultural settlement tho accompanying returns must show most satisfactory advancement, and at the present time Tuapeka, the oldest gold field of importance in Otago, presents in its hundreds of farms a bright example of the colonizing influence of gold. The discovery of the gold field dates from 1861, at which time there was not a farm in the district, while now, from Tokomairiro in the south to beyond the Clutha Eiver in the north, for a distance of nearly forty miles, a continuous line of small occupiers are settled upon the land, while others have spread back in every available direction. Many of the farmers are old gold miners who for years had followed the rushes at the gold fields in the neighbouring colonies, who now, in most cases, having married, are settled down to a less exciting occupation, and certainly with more comfort and content. There is no reason to suspect that what has occurred in other colonies, of men taking up blocks of land, exhausting its fertility, and then selling out to large proprietors, will occur here, as the nature and quality of the improvements effected upon the land, aud the manner of working it, evidence a contrary intention. Population. —There are less European miners now in the district than at the date of my last report, but including Chinese, the number of whom has increased, the total remains about the same. It does not now appear likely that many of those miners who left the district for employment on the public works will return to their old occupation of mining, for by the completion and forward state of some of the public works several have lost that employment, but few have resumed mining. Alluvial Mining. —At the Blue Spur new life has been infused by the favourable returns obtained under the new method in which some of the claims are worked, by crushing under stampers in place of ground sluicing. There are now nine large claims in occupation ;of these, five are worked by ground sluicing, and employ about forty men. At the other claims, all the cement and gravel removed by tunnelling is passed under stampers, in all 34 head driven by water power. It is estimated that about 2,000 tons a week are passed under the stampers. At first gratings with 120 holes to the square inch were used, but it has been found that this fineness was unnecessary, and now a description of wire netting an eighth of an inch apart is found sufficient for all purposes, and to greatly increase the quantity that can be put through over the fine gratings first in use. Another battery of twenty stamps is now in course of erection at one of the best claims on the Spur. The proprietors intend to pass the whole of their claim to bed rock, and of an average depth of from 60 to 70 feet under the stamps. They have worked the same claim for fourteen years, consequently must be well able to judge of its gold-producing powers, and no doubt have made careful calculations to guide them : yet if they make it pay —and the chances seem all in its favour —the profitable crushing of such a huge mass of earth will be unprecedented, and the work of more than a score of years. The principal workings at Waipori are in ground on a large flat or valley, which has been made available for working by the construction of a drainage channel under the Immigration and Public Works Acts. The representations made before the construction of the channel of the richness of the ground through which it would pass have not been realized. There is no doubt a large quantity of gold in the land, but it is too widely scattered