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material, which will afford employment to a large mining population for many years to come, while the wash-drift on the whole of the high terrace-land along this line will give remunerative wages with a liberal supply of water with which to work it. The ground on the north side of the Grey Valley is of a more recent formation ; but still there are a number of good claims in the localities of Moonlight and Blackball, where many men are averaging higher wages than anywhere else on the West Coast. Westland. This embraces a large field, and one where no less than 2,448 men were employed in connection with mining during the past year. It includes the portion of the West Coast from the Grey and Arnold Bivers to Jackson's Bay. It was in this district that gold was first discovered on the West Coast, by a party of Maoris, on one of their periodical visits to Greenstone Creek in search of the pounamu stone, so highly prized amongst them for making weapons of defence and ornaments. KUMAEA. The largest centre of the alluvial mining population is at Kumara, where a great quantity of gold has been obtained from a comparatively small area of ground. This is still a place capable of supporting a considerable population. The leads of auriferous drifts are some distance back from the Teramakau Biver. This makes needful the construction of long tail-races to convey the tailings from the mining claims to the bed of the river. Five of these long tail-races have been completed, and a sixth is now being commenced, which will be about 70 chains in length. Where works of such magnitude have to be constructed with boxes and false-bottom blocks, subsidies have been given towards their cost. The revenue from the Government water-race, which supplies most of the mines on the Kumara field, is dependent on the number of claims that can utilise the water, hence the necessity for giving assistance towards opening up new ground. Callaghan's, Waimea, and Staffoed. At Callaghan's, Waimea, and Stafford, men continue to get a livelihood working in the terraces. At Callaghan's a good deal of new ground will shortly be opened up, as soon as a branch water-race, which is now in course of construction, is completed; and at Waimea a long tail-race is in course of construction to enable new ground in the middle branch and the upper portion of Waimea Flat to be worked by hydraulic sluicing. Between Waimea and Stafford men are only making small wages, owing to the distance at which the workings are from the creek-bed—which is the only place for the deposit of tailings. Then the small amount of fall for the sluices, together with the fact that the ground is gradually deeper as it gets into the range, prevents the same amount of bed-rock from being laid bare as in former years, and consequently there is a large decrease in the yield of gold. Humpheey's Gully. At Humphrey's Gully there is a large area of ground covered with auriferous gravels, which in some places are 300 ft. in depth, with plenty of fall. The whole of them may be worked by hydraulic sluicing. A company has been working these gravels for the last seven years with a small supply of water, and gold to the value of about £30,000 has been obtained, but the quantity of water at the command of the company is totally inadequate to work this large deposit on anything like an extensive scale. Becently arrangements have been made for additional capital to extend the company's water-race to the Arahura Biver, where practically an unlimited supply will be obtained. Blue Spue. At the Blue Spur extraordinarily rich ground has been opened up during the last year, the wash-drift containing nearly 3oz. gold to a load. This discovery is due to Mr. Augustus Boys, who, by indomitable perseverance, constructed a