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C—6.

machinery —pumping, crushing, &c. —is employed on the works, having cost £27,000. A large well-timbered shaft has been put down 400ft., and two drives below have been worked 80ft. and 40ft. respectively. The company are off gold now, and require more capital to still further prosecute deep levels; they have indications and hopes of again finding arich lead. Should success attend their enterprise the district will benefit greatly. If the mining industry is to be put upon a surer and more sound basis for the legitimate investment of capital —whether foreign or local —undertakings such as this are deserving of every reasonable consideration. I also visited the Triumph Company's reef, not far distant from the Tokatea Company. They had been about three months at work on the reef, but only one week with their battery since its erection. The power used here was steam, and the fuel, timber; water-power, I believe, could be had at no great cost. The manager seemed satisfied with the general appearance of the stone he was taking out, and the results of the crushing already done. There is another mine on the Tokatea Saddle, known as the lloyal Oak, but at present not being worked, consequently a large extent of ground is for the time locked up. There are also the large pumping-plant, battery, and land of the Union Beach Company, near to Coromandel, idle, pending a final liquidation, or some new financial arrangement whereby the mine can again be put into active operation. On the next morning I left Coromandel for the Castle Hock Range, up the Matawai Creek, in the direction of Tiki, where there are being worked several reefs showing gold in fair quantity, and, notwithstanding that the stone has to be carted from the mines several miles down an indifferent dray-track to the creek where the crushing-battery is placed, the results have encouraged the several proprietors; but I believe it is the intention of more than one proprietary to arrange for the erection of machinery for crushing nearer to the quartz-workings, and thereby effect considerable saving in carriage. The forest generally in the district, containing several kinds of useful timbers, is very dense, but without tracks the country cannot be inspected nor prospected for minerals. A little road-making has been done, but only a mere beginning of what ought to be accomplished in this direction if we hope for the development of the hidden resources of the district and its progress in colonization. But, while giving attention to works of practical usefulness for unbosoming our resources below the earth's surface, we should not neglect the economy or allow waste of those valuable products above. It has been no uncommon sight, daily during my travels here, to observe a gigantic kauri tree of many feet in diameter laid waste to rot, for the sake of obtaining a few slabs for mining purposes, which might as well have been cut from one of the more common and ordinary kinds of timber generally found among the mixed forests of New Zealand. Mauraki Gulf. —I crossed over from this reefing country to a Native settlement at Manaia Bay, on the Hauraki Gulf. A discovery of gold has been made, some three miles from the settlement, on Native lands, and, to show the importance attached to the advancement of the mining industry by the Maoris in the locality, they have not only agreed to give the land necessary for the formation of a road, but to contribute besides, a fourth of the cost of making it. An agreement, setting forth the conditions I have stated, had been drawn up and signed by all the Native owners but one, who dissented. I was glad, however, to be the means,, during my short stay at the settlement, of inducing him to relent, and I saw the last signature of ownership necessary subscribed to the agreement. Thames Valley. —I then rode to Tapu, on the Eirth of Thames, and reached my halting place soon after nightfall. I inspected several mines next morning up the river; and about this locality there are about twenty men engaged in prospecting, chiefly in the sides of the high hills. Here I found the miners somewhat at variance in opinion as to the course to take to renew their acquaintance with rich leads similar to those of yore, worked upon.this field some sixteen years ago, and from which many thousand ounces of gold were obtained, and of greater fineness. than gold found in adjacent localities. Bull and Co. had put down a shaft