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Thames. As year by year passes by, the workings in the mines are getting deeper, and consequently more expensive to work. The heavy charges for drainage, with the yields from the mines falling off, is becoming a drag on the shareholders, and it appears to any one visiting the field that the day is not far distant when several of the companies will have to suspend operations. The great cry in the district is, " Test the deep levels " ; but to do this requires more capital than the present companies can find; and, in addition to this, there has not yet been any feasible scheme put forward to give sufficient encouragement to capitalists to invest money to prospect the deep levels. The ground on this field was extremely rich in some portions of the lodes, especially near the outcrops at the northern end of the field. At the Kuranui Hill the most of the gold was got close to the surface, and it appears to trend in a southerly direction from where it was found on the Shotover Claim, in a belt of ground having several lines of reef or lodes traversing through it at almost right-angles to the direction of the auriferous band of country. The belt of country where the greater portion of the gold has been obtained is between the Shotover and Queen of Beauty Claims. At the former claim the gold was got at and near the surface, while at the Moanataiari Claim the best of the gold was some distance below the surface; and the richest portion of this band or belt of country seems to have gradually got deeper as it went southerly, as has been proved in the old Caledonian, Waiotahi, Cambria, Deep Level, Cross, Prince Imperial, Saxon, and Queen of Beauty Mines. The Prince Imperial Company did not get on to this band until it was down nearly 300 ft. below the level of the surface on the flat. Comparing the level of the place where the rich patch of gold was found in the Shotover Claim, and the depth at which it was found in the Prince Imperial Claim, there is a difference of about 462 ft. The distance from the Shotover to the Prince Imperial shaft is something like 2,442 ft., and the depth being 462 ft., it shows the highly auriferous portion of the band or belt of country referred to is dipping in a southerly direction of lin 53, or at an angle of nearly 11 degrees. Coming southward from the Prince Imperial, the depth in the Saxon and Queen of Beauty Mines corresponds with this dip, and the inference to be deduced from this is, that there is a high probability of rich auriferous stone being found to the southward of the Queen of Beauty shaft—and very little work has been done in this direction. The most recent workings at deep levels to the south end of the field were in the Saxon Mine, the deepest level being 475 ft. below the surface. The stone underfoot in this level showed that it was equally as good as that worked above it; and in the adjoining mine—the Queen of Beauty—■ payable stone was cut at about 740 ft. deep in No. 11 level. Mr. Thomas Eadford, who was manager of the Queen of Beauty Company when the pumping machinery broke down and operations in the mine were suspended, states that from the No. 11 level a cross-cut was driven for a distance of 48ft., when No. 1 reef was cut and was driven on for a distance of about 113 ft.—■ namely, 30ft. to the south of the cross-cut and 83ft. to the north. As far as was driven, the reef was well defined and heavily impregnated with mineral. No stone was crushed from this reef, but Mr. Eadford has no doubt as to its payable nature. A cross-cut was driven for a distance of 86ft. from the shaft, where a leader was cut which showed gold. About 40ft. was driven on this leader, and favourable indications of gold were got up to the last day of working. In carrying on the cross-cut for 24ft. beyond the point where the leader was cut, a lode was struck giving off a large quantity of strata on several occasions. Mr. Eadford stated he saw gold, and forwarded samples of the stone to the directors. A specimen of the stone was shown me which came from this level, and showed gold very freely. On making inquiries of the mine-managers on the field as to the different runs or auriferous bands of country, they all agree that these dip in a southward direction. Mr. Eadford, in a report to the Queen of Beauty Extended Company, states that from the surface down to 350 ft. the whole length of the lodes were payable for working, enabling good dividends to be paid; but for 150 ft. below this level the lodes were not nearly so good. At the No. 8 level —537 ft. below the surface —the lodes were found as good, if not better, than ever they had been before. This run of gold continued down to a depth of 677 ft., when the stone became of a lower grade ; but on sinking the shaft the country rock improved in character, and Mr. Eadford is highly impressed that a good shot of gold-bearing stone will be got at deeper levels. This mine was abandoned owing to the company having insufficient funds to erect a new pumping plant. The plant they had consisted of two columns of pumps 12in. in diameter. Before the machinery broke down these pumps, which had a 6ft. stroke, were driven at the rate of twelve and thirteen strokes per minute, and even at this speed the pumps were not able to contend with the water. So that it was not a question of repairing the breakage which took place, but one of entailing a large outlay in entirely new machinery and pumps. The question of further prospecting the Thames Goldfield at deep levels certainly points to the country south of the Queen of Beauty shaft, as this is a portion of the field where very little work has been done, and necessarily so, because the gold-bearing ledge or band of country is apparently at a considerable depth, and could not have been prospected without powerful drainage machinery. It must not, however, be lost sight of that this portion of the field has slipped away from the back range, causing a vertical dislocation of from 500 ft. to 700 ft. The amount of dislocation cannot be accurately determined; but by taking the horizontal distance—from where the Moanataiari adit-level cut the slide, at 30ft. above the sea-level, to where it was cut by a level put in from the bottom of the Big Pump shaft, about 620 ft. below sea-level—as about 8-J- chains or 561 ft., the vertical distance being about 650 ft., and if the inclination of the face of the slide be taken at from 45 degrees, then the vertical displacement would be about 561 ft.; but it would be more if the angle of inclination was steeper ; therefore the vertical dislocation may be fairly set down within the limits stated.