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on shipboard at London for mineral yielding 55 to 60 per cent, of tungstic acid is 12s. to 14s. per unit. Manganese. Small quantities of manganese ore are exported to Europe every year, but this is an industry which has not progressed. Records have been kept of the, quantity exported Bince the year 1878. In that year 2,516 tons was forwarded to Europe, of a value of £4 a ton, and last year only 521 tons were exported, having a value of about £2 7s. 6d. per ton. During the last year, J. W. Jaffray and Company, of Sydney, got a lease of portions of Waiheke Island, and it is stated that they have entered into arrangements to supply 2,000 tons per annum from that place. Antimony. There were three companies engaged in antimony-mining last year—namely, at Waipori and Barewood in Otago, and at Endeavour Inlet; but the price of the ore at the present time is low compared with what it was a few years ago, consequently the profits on working it are very small. The company at Endeavour Inlet have a good concentrating plant, and are able to dress the ore up to a high percentage. This company estimates that they get a clear profit of about £2 per ton after paying all expenses in connection with it. During last year 364 tons were exported of the value of £4,900. Kauri-Gum. This industry is assuming larger proportions every year, and last year the export was 8,705 tons, valued at £517,678, which is equal to £52 9s. 4d. per ton ; whereas the quantity exported for the previous year was 8,388 tons, valued at £437,056, being equal to £52 4s. per ton. It will therefore be seen that the quantity exported last year has increased by 317 tons, while the value increased by £80,622. The value of kauri-gum has fluctuated considerably. When it was first exported, in 1853, its value was about £19 per ton, and in 1860 it fell to a little over £9 per ton ; by 1870 it gradually rose to nearly £40 a ton, and by 1880 the price had risen to over £51 per ton. The value is not only increasing, but the quantity exported year by year is increasing, notwithstanding that this industry has been carried on for the last forty years, being confined to a comparatively small area of the colony. The total area over which kauri-gum is found, exclusive of the islands, is about 5,682,586 acres. It is very difficult to ascertain the number of men employed in digging gum, as a great many Natives are casually working on the gum-fields ; but if the average earnings of those employed be taken at, say, £100 per annum, there would be about 5,177 men employed in this industry. • To make a comparative analysis of the magnitude of this industry with goldmining : the value of the produce of the gum-fields last year was £111,155 more than the value of the gold got on the West Coast; or, to take the value of the whole of the mining products on the West Coast last year, including coal, which was about £602,857, it shows that the value of the mining products in the Auckland District—including kauri-gum—which amounted to about £715,332, exceeded the volume of the returns for the West Coast by £112,475 : therefore the gum industry, together with mining, in the northern portion of the colony forms a large factor in the employment of the population in the Auckland District. It has been represented to the Government that large numbers of men from foreign countries have recently come to the gum-fields, having no intention of settling in the colony. The effect of this is that they are taking away the means of earning a livelihood from men who have taken up land in village-settlements, who were partly depending on the gum-fields to afford them profitable employment in seasons when they were unable to work on their land. A Commission has new been appointed to inquire into the best mode of dealing with the question of gum-digging, and when their report comes to hand, the Government will then be in a position to deal with the subject in a complete and comprehensive manner. ROADS AND TRACKS. The construction of roads and tracks is essential to the development of the mining industry; without these, especially where the land is covered with heavy timber and dense scrub, the miner cannot carry on his operations to any advantage in order to open up the country and afford facilities for getting goods, machinery, and plant on the ground. The greater portion of the Otago District is destitute of timber, and roads can be easily made in any direction ; but on the West Coast, and on the northern goldfields, it is impossible to carry