20

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which yielded 401oz. of gold ; thus making a total of 14 tons of quartz crushed, and 7170z. of gold, being at the rate of 51oz. of gold per ton. Success Company. —Some very rich patches of stone were obtained from this company's mine some years ago. It cannot be termed a quartz reef, but merely a small vein of quartz that has been followed up. In some places there was a small shot of gold in the seam ; but of late years very little has been obtained from this mine. An English syndicate has purchased a block of land on the line of the Success leader or vein, known as the Taumatawahine Block. They have done a good deal in the way of cutting trenches on the surface, with the view of cutting through leaders and veins; but so far nothing of any note has been discovered. Waikoeomiko Distbiot. There is very little work being done in the Waikoromiko locality. McGregor's claim, which was discovered about fifteen months ago on Native land, is now applied for as a licensed holding, the land being given by the Native owner to the Governor on the same conditions as the Native lands at the Thames for mining purposes. Seventy-four pounds of picked stone from this claim yielded 13oz. 18dwt. of gold. Matawai and Tiki Distbicts. Mining in these districts is in a very quiet state at the present time. Nothing of any consequence is doing at Tiki and at Matawai. The claim formerly known as Vaughan's has not produced gold last year according to expectations. A low level was constructed previous to the present owners holding this ground, and during last year 50ft. of driving was done on the reef on the lower adit-level and 90ft. on the upper levels ; but the quartz showed to be of low grade for this district. From the surface level 99 tons was crushed, which yielded 1240z. of gold. At Castle Eock, Vizard's da:m has not maintained the reputation that was expected from the prospects obtained when the lode was first cut in the lower level; but the class of ore obtained from this mine is very refractory, and cannot be treated by the ordinary battery process with success, as it contains a percentage of antimony, which sickens the mercury, and renders it unfit for the purpose' of amalgamation : 10 tons of quartz from this mine yielded 50oz. of gold. Manaia District. This is a district where auriferous quartz was first discovered about three years ago. Several claims were at that time taken up, and prospecting continued for some time ; but nothing of any note was found before last year, when Blackmore and party discovered a rich quartz leader near the surface on the side of the bridle-track—constructed by subsidy from this department. This leader is about 6in. in thickness, from which 25 tons of quartz has been crushed, yielding 198oz. of gold. The Premier Mine, which is on private property near the beach, produced 3J tons of quartz, which yielded 105oz. of gold. Waiomo Distbict. This district was opened up by Lowry Brothers, who, after prospecting and tracing loose gold up the bed of the Paroquet Creek to near its head, came on a large body of rich auriferous quartz alongside of the creek. The reef, when first discovered, was of a very soft, ferruginous character, and contained a deal of loose gold, but after sinking down for some distance on the lode the stone gradually became poorer. For some time after Lowry Brothers had commenced to work the reef the stone was sufficiently rich to pay for packing from the mine to the sea-beach, a distance of about two miles and a half, over a track in which the horses had to plunge to the belly at every step. The quartz was then placed in boats and taken to Tapu and also to Grahamstown to be crushed, the cost of transit alone being about £6 per ton. Only the best of the stone was taken away at this time, and the rest of it stacked on the ground, awaiting the dray-road to be constructed, and a crush-ing-battery erected near the Waiomo Creek, so that it could be more cheaply conveyed to and crushed at this battery. During the time the original prospectors held this claim they got about 1,4000z. of gold from the quartz crushed by the expensive mode just described. Several other claims were taken up on this reef, and after being engaged for about twelve months in prospecting, the owners of the adjoining claims to the Paroquet purchased the prospectors' interest out and formed a company to work the three original claims, namely, the Paroquet, Maori, and Waiomo, with a capital of £25,000, none of which is yet paid up. This new company has erected a crushing-battery of twenty heads of stamps and six berdans at the junction of Waiomo and the Paroquet Creek. The road is now constructed from the mine to the battery, and the manager expects the company to be in a position to pay for this machinery out of the profits of the mine before the bills which are given as payment are matured. This company has taken steps to open out and prospect the mine considerably before arranging to erect machinery. There are two adit-levels constructed, one of which is 46ft. below the old workings, and the other 60ft. under the second level, which gives 106 ft. of backs. The run or shot of gold in the lode is about 90ft. in length, having an average thickness of about 3ft. In some places the lode widens out considerably and in others it is very narrow. A winze has been sunk down from the upper workings to the bottom level, showing that the reef carries payable gold for the whole of the way. In some places the lode is 6ft. in thickness and in other portions it gets very narrow, almost pinching entirely out. From the amount of gold that can be seen in the lode when the winze is sunk there is little doubt but that this will be a payable mine for some time at least. It is known that there is a block of stone 90ft. long and 106 ft. in height that will pay well for taking out, but beyond this nothing more can be said. Eecently 60 tons of quartz has been crushed, which yielded about 85oz. of gold. On my visit to this district on a former occasion I was satisfied from the appearance of the reef that it would continue to go down for some distance, and even now, in the bottom level, the foot-wall still preserves its well-defined character, but the hanging-wall is not defined ; the quartz