39

H.—s

Other claims of smaller extent, but rich, are being energetically worked at Tinker's. The Blue Duck yielded about three thousand ounces of gold during the past year. Water is the great motor, and when a large race from Drybread, which is now in hand, is completed, I look for very large returns from the Tinker group. Roxburgh. —At this portion of my district I can note very little change. There are perhaps some dozen and a half sluicing claims that yield good and in some cases rich returns to their owners. These holdings, as I have before stated, do not encourage any remark or notice; they are held by water-race owners, their yields are steady, the men are plodding, methodical, and industrious ; and it is not easy to mark any progress —that is to say, the result. The ground gradually changes its appearance under the water-power, but, whether the results of a " washing up "be £1 per week, or £10, or £20, the work still goes on. I believe that there is remunerative work for all the miners now engaged in this locality for years to come, and room for more, if more water was available ; and I believe, further, that should any of the present miners hit upon any rich lead, so as to startle them out of their usual quiet, undemonstrative manner, means would be found to supply the needful element from the river itself by some mechanical process. I was so fortunate as to meet Professor Ulrich, of the Dunedin University, at Roxburgh, who was then, at the request of the Government, visiting this place for the purpose of reporting on its geological features with reference to gold, and I was pleased to hear him confirm what I had only hoped as to the prospects of that portion of this district—the terraces and flats on the banks of the Molyneux, north and south of Roxburgh. Cromwell and Bannockburn. —At Cromwell the principal workers are Chinese, and I have noticed little change in numbers or appearance of workings to that of last year. At Bannockburn work has progressed all the time. I look on Bannockburn and Tinker's as the most important mining localities in the district, but the prosperity of the former is yet to come, and depends on the progress of the two large main tail-races at Pipeclay and Smith's Gully, which, if properly carried out, will open up a large area of ground already proved richly auriferous; and on the faith of these works many miners are waiting to work a large tract of land. There is abundance of water to work the ground, though more could be put to good use if procurable. These main channels have been encouraged by a subsidy from Government to be given in progress payments as the works proceed. Quartz. I am sorry to report that my remarks under this head must differ so widely from those I had hoped to make when reporting last year. After a trial crushing from one or two of the pioneer claims, which resulted in a yield not worth recording, the new quartz claims on the Carrick, taken up last year with so much confidence of success, were abandoned and the applications for leases withdrawn. The antimony lode in the same locality was also a failure, after the company had gone to a great expense putting up smelting works, &c. Of the discoveries of cinnabar lodes at the Nevis I have heard but little; the prospecting licenses have expired, and I fear nothing is likely to come of them for the present. I have hopes of being able to report favourably of some quartz claims on the Obelisk Range next year; they are not all new discoveries, but have been so little tested that a report would be premature. The Cromwell reef at Bendigo is still at work, and has recently increased its area, but I have nothing further to report about it. Arrowtown and Macetown, Wakatipu District. During the past year there has been a fair yield of gold from the Macetown reefs, chiefly from one company—the Tipperary. The work done by this company is of importance, inasmuch as, by their obtaining richer stone at their deeper levels, they have proved the continuity of the gold; but, though the yield of gold has been satisfactory when it has been got, there has not been much energy shown in this part of the district generally. More than half of the crushing plants have been idle, and many of the holdings entirely unworked. The year has been barren of discoveries, though many new gold-mining leases are now passing through the surveyor's hands and the Court. The greatest drawback to the development of the quartz mines at Macetown is, I trust, likely soon to be removed, by the formation of a dray-track, whereby mining timber, machinery, and necessaries for the mines and workmen can be transported at cheaper rates than at present by packhorses. This class of mining requires the assistance of town capital, and the present high cost of working, from the cause above alluded to, is prohibitory of success. Alluvial mining has received very little attention, and I notice a great falling-off in the Chinese population in the neighbourhood of Arrow. At the Upper Shotover mining still continues to be energetically prosecuted; but no fresh finds or noticeable change has occurred. In the Phoenix Claim good dead-work has been done in the low levels, and the mine opened out for work, with a good prospect of returning the enterprising owner good results on his outlay. There are very few quartz reefs worked in this part of the district, and so far their results give little encouragement. Ido not think, however, they have been sufficiently prospected, for the country is extremely rough and inaccessible, and this, though no drawback to alluvial mining, is an important consideration in working a quartz mine. The Invincible Company's reef, at the head of the Lake Wakatipu, has had its trial or first crushing at their newly-erected battery. I visited the claim—which has now been taken up about three years—a short time since. It is situated on, the eastern side of the Rees River, on the