o.—3a

14

Charleston. No fresh discoveries of any importance have been reported during the year. The sea-beach claims continue to be eminently productive, and have given a better yield of late than they had been doing for a long time past. At the Back Lead and Candlelight the miners depend chiefly on the county water-race for their supply, which has been very irregular for some months owing to breakages in the siphon. It is expected that repairs will be effected by about the middle of this month. Pour batteries are at work crushing cement and giving satisfactory returns, and a fifth battery is in course of construction. Only a few miners are now employed at Croninville. The shallow ground has been worked out, and the deeper ground cannot be profitably worked by small parties of men without capital. At the Four Mile there are three special claims, of an aggregate area of 250 acres, held by a German syndicate, but very little has been done upon the ground beyond felling and burning the bush. At Fool's Terrace a special claim of 52 acres has been taken up by A. M. Bourke. A tunnel has been driven 700 ft. and other necessary preliminary work carried out. If this claim proves a success other claims will doubtless be taken up in the same locality, which has not yet been thoroughly prospected. Two special claims have been taken up at Brown's Terrace, but very little has been done towards developing them. On the south side of the Totara Eiver, near the sea-beach, J. M. Powell has taken up a special claim of 26 acres of black-sand country. Six Government heads of water are being brought from the Totara Eiver near Croninville, a distance of four miles. At Brighton and Long Beach only a few miners are employed. Four beach claims are being worked, only one of them giving satisfactory returns. The terraces in this locality are also very poor—in fact, it'may be said that they were practically worked out more than thirty years ago. Judging from present indications the prospects of a mining revival in Charleston and Brighton are not in any way encouraging; but, as the unexpected frequently happens in mining affairs, hopes for a brighter future are not altogether unwarranted. I have, &c, The Under-Secretary, Mines Department, Wellington. H. A. Stratford.

No. 7. Mr. Warden Stkatfoed to the Undee-Secretary for Mines, Wellington. Sir,— Warden's Office, Eeefton, 14th May, 1898. I have the honour to forward to you herewith statistical returns for the year ended the 31st March last, and submit the following report on the Inangahua portion of the district under my charge for the same period. The return of gold from the quartz-mines is small. 9,751 tons of quartz has been crushed, yielding 4,266 oz. of gold, of the value of £18,253. The yield of gold from alluvial workings amounts to 3,015 oz., of th,e value of £11,811. From the opening of the district to the 31st March last 695,701 tons of quartz has been crushed, from which 489,608 oz. of gold has been obtained, representing a value of £1,915,979, out of which £593,468 has been distributed in dividends. The total amount of alluvial gold raised for the same period is approximately estimated at 134,687 oz., representing a value of £499,827. The total goldproduction of the district is, as far as can be ascertained, 624,295 oz., of a value of £2,415,806.

The following table will show the calls, &c., made by various companies in the district during the year:—

• 9 tons 19 owt. concentrates treated conjointly by Keep-it-Dark and Heroules. t 3,970 tons tailings treated by cyanide process.

Company. Galls made. Dividends. a. oi Go*. Value. £ 8. d. 292 10 0 £ Tons. Oz. dwt. gr. £ s. d. Boatman's Exploration Keep-it-Dark 3,282 1,031 12 12 25 6 16 4,098 4 0 101 3 2 No. 2 South Keep-it-Dark Al Hercules Golden Lead Sir Francis Drake Syndicate (private company) Big Eiver ... 700 "0 0 50 '"56 1,400 0 0 900 0 0 175 18 16 12 13 8 715 14 1 50 11 7 1,357 465 9 1 1,867 14 8 480 t 390 11 0 620 0 0 1,582 6 1 2,480 0 0 Cumberland Dillon Newhaven ... Boatman's Sluicing Company ... Wealth of Nations ... Progress Mines of New Zealand Inglewood ... 1,000 0 0 3,166 13 4 100 0 0 100 0 0 * 932 3,644 186 15 7 1,358 0 13 749 0 0 6,608 13 8 200 0 0 Alluvial gold 7,859 3 4 50 9,751 4,266 3,015 7 0 1 0 18,253 7 3 11,811 0 0 Totals 7,281 7 1 30,064 7 3