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No. 3. Mr. Warden Keniuck to the Under-Sechetary for Gold Fields. Sir,— Warden's Office, Te Aroha, April 19th, 1883. When concluding my last year's report on this district I stated that, to utilize fully the present discoveries, as well as to open up the large extent of country as yet scarcely prospected, a very considerable expenditure on roads and tracks would yet be required. This fact was so well understood by all interested in the mines then taken up that energetic efforts were made to raise sufficient capital to construct a tramway to convey the quartz from the mines to the large battery in course of construction at the mouth of the Waiorongomai Creek, a distance of three miles. The Piako County Council, fully appreciating the importance of the settling in the Piako and Waikato districts of a fixed gold-fields population, took the matter in hand, and, with the aid of a considerable subsidy (£6,000) from the Government, have accepted tenders for the work, the total cost of which will not be under £12,000. The exceptional difficulties that had to be contended with in constructing this line will be better understood when it is known that the engineer, Mr. Stewart, with a party of men, was engaged more than three months in the survey and preparing working plans and specifications. The principal work of the year having been the preparation and construction of this tramway, not yet completed, and the battery, the whole of the mines having to wait upon these works, I will devote the first portion of my report to them. As I have before stated, the heavily-timbered and rugged nature of the country caused a great deal of time to be occupied in the survey of the tramway, so that the first formation contract was only commenced in November last. However, the engineer of the work estimates that the line will be completed and ready for work by the end of July next. The tramway will, when finished, be a little over three miles in length, laid with heavy iron rails, with a gauge of 2 feet 9 inches; if required, the line could be worked with a light engine, in lieu of horse-traction, as at present proposed. The rise from the flat where the battery is placed at the mouth of the creek to the terminus on the Premier Claim is 1,420 feet. There will be three self-acting grades connecting three horse-grades or levels; the length of the self-acting-grades, to be worked by steel-wire ropes, will be, respectively, fourteen, twenty-five, and sixteen chains. The horse-grades are sixty-five, sixty-three, and forty-nine chains in length. The different claims in the line of tramway will themselves connect their workings with the line, either by shoots or self-acting wire-tramways. The Premier, Colonist, New Find, and Werahiko Claims intend having this connection ready on completion of the line, so as to be the first to send quartz to the battery. Thanks to the enterprise of two prominent Auckland citizens, Messrs. J. C. Firth and J. McCosh Clark, a large battery has been erected, and two water-races brought in in anticipation of the completion of the tramway. The battery, which is now completed aud ready for work, is placed on the plain where the Waiorongomai Creek debouches from the hills. The crushing power consists of forty head of powerful stamps, and twelve berdans. Large self-acting feeders, with hoppers capable of containing 500 tons of quartz (somewhat less than a week's crushing), and all the latest improvements in gold-saving apparatus have been erected in connection with the battery, at a very considerable expense. The entire plant and buildings are finished in the most thorough and complete manner, aud will compare favourably with any similar plant elsewhere. Two water-races two miles and a quarter in length, capable of carrying thirteen sluiceheads of water, have been constructed, one from the right hand or south branch, the other from the left or main Waiorongomai Creek, the two connecting on the hill 225 feet above the battery. From there the whole of the water is conveyed in 20-inch pipes direct to the turbines, this fall of 225 feet giving a pressure of 90 lb. to the "inch. The mill will be driven by three turbines; two of sixty-horse power each will be used for driving the stamps, and the third of thirty-horse power for driving the berdans. The same water will be also utilised to supply the tables and berdans. The battery and water-races have been constructed at a cost of about £20,000, affording a most substantial guarantee of the faith of the owners in the future of the district. The length of time taken in the construction of the tramway has, as a matter of course, retarded the development of the mines, so much so that over the major portion of the known gold-bearing area absolutely no work has been done ; but the Mining Inspector's report upon the claims herewith will show that enough has been done to encourage the hope that when quartz can be got down to the battery the result will justify the prevalent belief in the future 'of the gold field. That this belief is general is amply proved by the fact of the great expenditure on mining plant, and the expensive and permanent nature of the buildings that have been and are being erected in the two towns that have sprung into existence within the last eighteen months ; whilst as yet not any gold has been sent from the district, beyond, of course, the few ounces obtained from the trial crushings of small parcels of stone. The Mining Inspector, Mr. George Wilson, reports as follows on the claims : Those mines on which any extensive works have been carried on during the year are, first, — The Premier. -*>ln this mine the level, which was commenced about 50 feet lower than where the gold was first found, has been driven for a considerable distance, and the run of gold proved to extend about 70 feet along the reef. A winze is being sunk to connect with a second level about 90 feet deeper, a tramway from which leads to a quartz-hopper at the upper horse-grade tramway. Gold has been found in the winze for 50 feet below the level from which it is com-