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crushed, and 1811b. of specimen stone, l,olßoz. of gold was obtained. According to the balancesheet in December last the receipts from gold obtained and money received for crushing, haulage, and-^ale of tailings amounted to £5,008 3s. LOd., and the expenditure on working the mine, crushing-plant, and incidental charges, £5,047 4s. Id. ; but, as they had a cash balance from the year previous of £200 135., they had still a small balance left on the year's transactions. This mine is situated in such a position on the field that there is no telling the day when another rich block of auriferous stone may be discovered, and there are also numerous small quartz veins, similar to those found in the Waiotahi Mine, carrying gold. Trenton Mine. —This mine adjoins the Cambria and Saxon Mines, and, judging from its position on the field, it can hardly fail from getting gold. The company who own this mine have expended over £6,000 in prospecting the ground, and until recently have failed to get anything likely to become payable for working. They have sunk a shaft to a depth of 557 ft. through very hard closegrained rock, having the strata dipping into the hill, and adjoining this hard belt of country the soft tufaceous sandstone lies against it at the high levels; therefore this hard rock overlies the soft sandstone where the lodes are, found in the Saxon Company's ground payable for working. In the latter company's mine the lodes on the higher levels became broken and branched off in leaders before coming against this hard country, and when this took place the gold ran out. The Trenton have now constructed a level from near the bottom of their shaft towards the Saxon boundary for a distance of 440 ft. At 400 ft. they struck the hanging-wall of one of the branches from the Saxon lode, which is being worked in the Saxon Mine from the No. 5 level, and at 440 ft. they struck the foot-wall of the other branch. The first branch of the lode met with is about 2ft. in thickness, but broken up into several small veins; but the other branch is more solid, and from lft. to lft. 6in. in thickness. At the time of my visit they were driving towards the Saxon boundary, which was only about 50ft. distant, and gold was visible in some of the stone. On examining the strata of the hard rock met with in the Trenton shaft, and for some distance in the low level, there is a hard band of close-grained indurated tufaceous sandstone at about 120 ft. from the shaft, running in a north-west and south-east direction, and dipping into the range, which has a very marked discoloration, and to the east of this the country rock becomes altered in a slight degree, getting softer, until the soft brown tufaeeous sandstone is met with. Judging from the angle at which this rock is dipping, the shaft will have to go through from 300 ft. to 400 ft. of hard country until it strikes the soft sandstones where the payable lodes in this district are usually found ; but in sinking through this hard rock they will have the advantage of not being liable to a large quantity of water unless open seams are met with, which is not at all. likely; and this may compensate in a measure for the extra expense in sinking through hard rock. They are not likely to have a great extent of a payable lode on the present levels; but if the gold continues to go down they are likely to find it on the deeper levels. The same run of soft country goes into the Old Queen of Beauty ground, where gold was got below the level of the bottom of the Big Pump shaft, which is 640 ft. below the level of the flat; whereas the Trenton Company's shaft is sunk on the face of the range, the surface of which is considerably above the level of the flat where the Big Pump shaft is put down. During last year they crushed 75 tons of quartz from the branches of the Saxon lode, which yielded 41oz. of gold. The shareholders in this mine deserve to be well rewarded for their perseverance and energy in prospecting the ground. Fame, and Fortune Aline. —This comprises ground that had been previously worked and abandoned as valueless. A special claim was granted to Mr. E. Kersey Cooper, of 55 acres, in November, 1887, and soon after obtaining the grant he formed a syndicate to take the claim up and work it. Operations were commenced in August, 1888, and since then 1,146 tons of quartz has been crushed, which yielded 1,8090z. of gold. The whole of the ground is full of string-like veins and leaders of auriferous quartz, similar to those found in the Waiotahi Mine, and Mr. Cooper has been working on a number of these. There is a large lode from 6ft. to 7ft. in thickness going through this claim, and from a trial-crushing of 25 loads of quartz from this lode 13oz. sdwt. of gold was obtained, being an average yield of lOdwt. 14gr. to the load, the value of the gold being about £2 15s. per ounce. This would be equal to £1 Bs. lid. per ton, which ought to pay for working a lode of this dimension. A large amount of work has recently been done in this mine in repairing old adit-levels and extending them, and a low level is in course of construction to open up the mine at 150 ft. below the present workings. The syndicate are so thoroughly satisfied with the value of their property that they have purchased from the Caledonian Company a crushing-battery of twenty head of stamps, and propose to construct an aerial tramway of 60 chains in length, to connect the mine wdth the crushing-plant. Lone Hand Company. —This company's mine is in the vicinity of Karaka Creek. Prom the annual balance-sheet the following results of the working are caken : namely, 576 loads of quartz crushed for a yield of 1,1410z. 4dwt. of gold, representing a value of £2,990 7s. 9d., and tailings sold £1 lls. Bd., this making the total receipts £2,991 19s. od.; while their expenditure was £2,691 19s. 5d., including the cost of a low-level adit; thus leaving a clear profit for the year of £300. If the cost of constructing the low level were deducted—namely, £547 10s. 3d.—it would leave the profits on the working of the mine for the year £847 10s. 3d. ; but all dead-work should be included in the cost of working the mine. The construction of a low 7 adit has occupied some considerable time. It is constructed for a distance of about 960 ft. :of this distance' only about 60ft. is in the ground the company have been working. They propose extending it for a further distance of 65ft. on the lode, which is about 12in. in thickness, and then making a cross-cut to the Adelaide reef.' 5 This level will give about 90ft. of backs on the Adelaide and other reefs, and allow them to work about 900 ft. in length on the lodes if they continue to prove payable through the ground for the whole distance. According to the returns from this mine for the year ending the 31st March last, there w xas 571 tons of quartz crushed, which yielded 1,1580z. ldwt. of gold. Other Claims on the Field. —It is needless to enumerate the whole of the claims on this field, as they are all fully described in the report of Ml', Wilson, the Inspector of Mines, Suffice it to state