C- 2.

10

Comparative Value op Expoet op Gold and Silvee por the First Six Months of the Yeaes 1898-99. The latest Customs returns show that the export of gold for the first six months of the present year was valued at £752,643, the return for the corresponding period of 1898 being valued at £527,516, an increase of £225,127. The value of silver exported shows an increase of £4,997 for the same period. SCHOOLS OF MINES. The various schools for classes have been carried on at the Thames, Waihi, Coromandel, Reefton, Nelson, and the Otago University, the instructors at the Thames being officers of the department, subsidies being also granted for part payment of instructors and maintenance of schools at Waihi, Coromandel, and Westport. The school at Reefton is at present closed, but proposals are now under consideration for reopening it. The Otago University was also granted the usual annual amount towards the cost of maintaining its School of Mines. During, the year 170 students attended the schools of mines—namely, sixty-four at the Thames, forty-seven at Coromandel, forty-four at Waihi, forty-seven at Dunedin, and twelve at Reefton. During the previous year 342 attended. This shows a great falling-off for the past year, the decrease in the attendance being about 50 per cent. At the last examination only four students went up for the three scholarships at the Otago University offered annually by the Government for competition by students attending schools of mines, but Mr. William Donovan, of the Thames School, was the only successful candidate. He is thus entitled to a £50-per-annum scholarship, tenable for three years. It is to be regretted that so few of the Schools of Mines students have hitherto availed themselves of the offer of these scholarships. The expenditure on Schools of Mines during the year was £1,450 15s. 2d., exclusive of teachers' salaries. SUNDAY LABOUE IN MINES. Permits to the number of fifty-two, giving permission for the employment of 304 men, were issued by the Inspectors of Mines in all parts of the colony. TBIBUTLNG. This method of working quartz-mines, which had become almost a dead letter during the boom period, is again being adopted by many of the mining companies. The percentage paid by tributers in most of the mines is from 2£ to 15 per cent., no tribute being paid if the miner's earnings do not exceed £1 10s. per week. In the Kuranui-Caledonia-i Mine, at the Thames, no tribute is paid until the miner's earnings exceed £2 per week, after which the percentage rises in a ratio from 5 per cent., proportionate to the earnings of the miner, until a maximum of 50 per cent, is reached, should the earnings amount to £20 per week. "THE MINING ACT, 1898." " The Mining Act, 1898," which came into operation on the Ist February last, appears to have given general satisfaction. Some detailed objections were however raised to certain of the regulations as first issued, but it is believed that the amendments made in the additional regulations overcome most, if not all, the defects which practical experience of the working of the original regulations brought under notice from time to time. In conformity with the requirements of the Act, the regulations have been referred to the Goldfields and Mines Committees of both Houses, and it is hoped that the members of these Committees will submit such further amendments and additions as they may consider desirable, to make the regulations as fully applicable as possible to the varied requirements of the mining industry in the several goldfields districts of the colony. After the Committees have dealt with the matter, fresh regulations will be prepared consolidating the present regulations and incorporating such