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year by year, more fully recognised. The miners now arc using far more water than they were some years ago, and find it is the most profitable method of getting away the ground. All the known payable terraces to which water can be brought are taken up, and the water-rights from every available stream adjacent to alluvial workings are secured. The, whole of the available sea-beaches, as well as some of the river-beds, are taken up in dredging claims, and, although many of them may prove unremunerative for working, there will be a good proportion of them that will pay with having good appliances for working. The dredging is likely to become a large industry, affording employment to a considerable population. Each of the dredges now working in Otago employs about twelve men—that is, when they are working continuously for twenty-four hours. There is a very large area of auriferous beaches and back-leads in lagoons in Westland which can be profitably worked with good dredging appliances, and offers a good field for the investment of money in dredging ventures. Kumaba. This is by far the largest field where hydraulic-sluicing operations are carried on in the colony • The most of the ground is held in ordinary and extended claims, although there are some special claims and licensed holdings. Some of the latter have been cut up and sold in small blocks to parties of individual miners at very high figures. Indeed, large areas of ground should not be granted in this locality, as the whole of it can be profitably worked in small claims, and the granting of large areas on this field is only encouraging a system of blackmail to be levied on the individual miner, which, to say the least, is very objectionable, and only putting the money into the pockets of a few speculators, who do not work the ground themselves, at the expense of the large majority of the miners on the field, as the money they have to pay in purchasing blocks of ground as their claims get worked out ought to go towards the further development and opening-out of the field. The whole of the available water-rights are taken up and held by Mr. Holmes, the-Government, and the Long Tunnel Company, and the ground can only be profitably worked by a large supply of water, and, as parties having claims on this field are dependent on a supply of water from Mr. Holmes's and the Government water-races, there is no necessity for granting large areas of ground to lie idle for years, waiting until such time as water is available, or to allow the holders to sell the ground to other people. The flat where the workings are situate has no doubt been at one time the bed of a large river; the whole of the boulders and stones in the ground are rounded and smooth, and the gold is flattened out and ground up by the action of these boulders being forced onwards and rolling over by the action of a strong rapid current. Some of the large boulders found in this flat are of such dimensions that no current in any of the rivers at the present day could move them, and apparently they have been brought from some distance by ice, as the same description of rock is not found in situ in the vicinity. The workings have so far been carried on in a very coarse boulder drift-wash, and the gold is found in layers through this wash-drift. The bed-rock has never been reached in the flat, neither is there sufficient fall to allow the ground to be worked on the present system to the main bottom. The Blue Eeef is found near the front of the terrace facing the Teremakau River, and it is again found on the foot of the Kapitea Hill; but where the principal gold has been obtained, and the richest claims, are between these points, which have all been worked on false bottoms. There is a great similarity between this place and the ground in Boss Flat, with the exception that the driftwash is much coarser at Kumara; but the different layers of stuff in which the gold is found have a great similarity. The lead of gold-bearing drift has been traced for a certain distance up the flat, and lost, and it cannot, so far, be traced on the opposite side- of the terrace from Larrikins', neither can it be traced for a great distance down the flat; at the sajne time, there is every indication that this lead will yet be found to extend for a long distance. A shaft was put down near the head of Larrikins' for about JOOft. in depth, without finding any bed-rock; but the quantity of water to contend with was so great that it could not be overcome by manual labour, and the shaft was abandoned. Judging from the formation of this flat, there is a likelihood of a good deal of gold being found at a greater depth, and, if so, it is likely to extend for a considerable distance, and, moreover, be much richer than the gold-bearing layers that have been worked ; at the same time, the expense of working would be considerably greater, as motive-power and machinery would have to be used to work the ground from a shaft. It would enhance the value of mining and other property in this district if payable gold were found at the deep levels, and, where so many men are employed, all of whom are principally interested in the claims on the flat, it would not come to much each to sink a shaft and erect machinery to test the ground, as there is a probability of their being well rewarded for this outlay. The whole of the ground that is known to be payable for working is held in claims, so that no one can take up a claim to test the deep ground unless by going a good distance away from where gold has been found. The present known ground at the high levels will yet take a large number of years to sluice away, and before this can be all worked the bed of the Teremakau River will be raised by tailings to a considerable extent; indeed, it will become a difficult question where to find room to stack the tailings before the present known auriferous ground is washed away. The day is not far distant when the bed of the river will be raised to such an extent that a flood will carry away the bridge on the Hokitika-Greymouth Road, and the whole of the flat that was formerly grass paddocks will become one bed of shingle. On the opposite side of the river from Kumara there are a few sluicing claims being worked, but the ground on this, side has never been so good as that on Dunedin and Larrikins' Mats. Some newground has been opened on the terrace close to the Teremakau River, below the Kumara, but there is not sufficient water on the field to admit of much new ground being opened; indeed, the owners of the present claims would take more water than there is on the field,