IL—ll

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one runs, there has been a loss of about 45,000, besides hundreds of cattle dying from starvation, and land torn up and utterly destroyed through violent freshets and floods; agricultural areas covered with silt; and fences, that have cost thousands of pounds, buried for miles. The sheep-farmers, at shearing, had to count their losses, aud, staggering under the blow, have, with one voice, surrendered their licenses to the Government, not with the intention, so far as I can learn, of giving up the land, but to enable them to partly recover, by paying a smaller rent for the runs. The demand is reasonable, aud I hope it will be granted. Agriculture. The farmers have suffered also by the inundation; but prices for land have been maintained—land fenced, and with improvements, selling at from £5 to £7 an acre. AVakatipu wheat has a ready sale in Southland and at Cromwell; and will always find a market, now that carriage is so much cheaper. This year farmers are holding at 4s. for wheat and 3s. for oats. Potatoes are selling at £7 per ton; but the money-market is so dreadfully tight that I am afraid they will have to lower their prices to obtain cash from grain-buyers and speculators at Invercargill and Cromwell. The entire population of the district is about 3,500. Of these there are 2,350 males (including 400 Chinese), and, say, 1,150 females. The amount of gold exported from the district has been as follows : Crushed at Macetown reefs, 1,618 oz. 2 dwt.=£5,663 7s. ; at Skippers, 322 oz. = £1,127: total from reefs, 1,940 oz. 2 dwt.= £6,790 7s. From alluvial diggings, 9,931 oz. = £37,489 10s. Gd. Total quantity of gold found in the district during the year, 11,871 0z.=£44,279 17s. Gd. Quartz gold is sold at £3 10s., and alluvial at £3 15s. Gd. There have been forty-eight mining disputes, 217 civil and 159 criminal cases, heard. I have held 10S Warden's and 104 Resident Magistrate's Courts, and travelled about 2,300 miles, during the year. The total amount of revenue from all sources received through this department is £10,592 ss. 7d., to which may be added £1,189 gold duty paid at Duuedin. Statistical returns are appended. I have, Ac, IL A. Stratford, The Under Secretary for Gold Fields, Wellington. AVarden.

No. 14. Mr. Warden Simpson to the Under Secretary for Gold Fields. Sir,— Warden's Office, Clyde, 30th June, 1879. I have the honor to hand you the statistical returns of the Dunstan District of the Otago Gold Fields for the year ended 31st March, 1879. Of their value I have not, as I have on previous occasions remarked, a favourable opinion, founded as they necessarily must be from their nature, on unsound data. Of the district generally, I have to report—First, that from a mining point of view, when compared with last year, it has receded. The yield of gold for 1877-78 was 39,084 oz., and for 1878-79 it has been only 32,014 oz., showing a decrease of 7,070 oz. For these figures, I am indebted to the civility of the various bank agents in the district. The decrease shown is for the major part to be attributed to the disastrous floods of September last, suspending as they did a largo proportion of the works, particularly those in the Teviot District, for the balance of the year. In many cases they damaged the water-races so much that mouths were lost in repairs. In one particular case—namely, the Carrick Water-race —the damage caused is beyond the ability of the company, the owners, to repair, and, as a consequence, the works on the Bannockburn have only had one-third of their usual supply since, and that means a corresponding diminution in the yield of gold. But my astonishment is that the decrease in the yield of gold for the year has not been greater. If I compare this year's yield with 1876-77, which was 34,812 oz., the decrease is only 2,800 oz. The chief decrease has been in the alluvial mines, the yield from them being 28,200 oz., showing G,BlB oz. less than last year. From quartz the yield has been 3,814 oz., showing only 246 oz. of a decrease from last year. Looking at the above figures, and the fact that there is no very noticeable diminution in the mining population, I am of opinion that the mining interest in this district cannot be said to be much on the wane yet, and I am very confident that the quartz reefs in the district, and they are numerous, will excite considerable attention at no very distant date. Settlement. —Steady progress has been made in that direction in this district during the year. From 4,000 to 5,000 acres have been leased under the agricultural-lease system by some thirty different lessees ; and nearly an equal area by an equal number of persons has been applied for under that system, but, by reason of pressure of work in the Survey Department, the applications have not been finally dealt with. These applications have been in suspense for about eight months, and such delay is, as a matter of course, very irksome to settlers, and has anything but a good tendency. About 1,500 acres have been taken up under deferred payments during the year, but this system is not in favour generally. Taking, therefore, the totals leased and applied for, the area taken up is about equal to that of last year, which was set down at 11,920 acres, and this is in a district where it is generally said that the land is not fit for settlement. But the fact is, no land is unfit for settlement if people would only study what the soil and climate are best suited to produce profitably both as regards crops and stock. The sale of pastoral lands on deferred payments is about to be introduced into this district, and the surveys have been made with that view. The two dangers to be avoided are the surveying of the land into sections too small to form depasturing farms; and, in the neighbourhood of settled agricultural blocks, &c, making tho sections too large and beyond the means of the settler, with a small neighbouring freehold or leasehold, to acquire grazing ground in lieu of what the often too much decried squatter has in many cases given them on fair terms in times gone by, for without grazing ground these small settlers in the interior cannot make a living. Of course these smaller areas should not be burdened with the residence clause in cases where the person acquiring is already a bond fide settler on the neighbouring land. I have, &c, W. Lawrence Simpson, The Under Secretary for Gold Fields, Wellington. Warden,