C—3.

ALLUVIAL AND HYDEAULIC MINING. SOUTHEEN DISTEICT. Livingstone. Twenty miners have been employed in sluicing operations during the year. Owing to a fairly wet season the water-supply has been good. Lost time, principally due to severe frosts, amounted to about six weeks. Water is brought on to the field by—(l) the Mosquito Eace, owned by Mr. J. F. Christian, twenty-five miles in length, and having a carrying-capacity of ten heads; (2) Mr. Cook's race (at a lower level), twenty-three miles long, carrying three heads (these races are from the south branch of the Maerewhenua Eiver) ; (3) Mr. McQuade's race, fifteen miles in length, and carrying three heads ; and (4) Mr. B. Yeoman's race —the Golden Hill—ten miles in length, and carrying two heads and a half (both the latter obtain their water from creeks). £1 per head per week is charged for water, the claims working at daytime only. Within the last couple of years it has been found that some of the layers in the false bottom (below the greensand formation) are gold-bearing. These are being worked in some places, but for want of sufficient fall for tailings the main bottom cannot be worked down to. lam informed that where main bottom has been touched the prospects were rather poor. No new ground is available to the present tailings-channel (the Maerewhenua Eiver), but it was pointed out to me at my visit to the locality in November last that, in the event of the Awamoko being proclaimed as a sludge-channel, there are terraces which could be commanded by the water now brought on to the field, and which, if thus made available to the miners, would give a new lease of life to the locality. Without this, Livingstone must rapidly cease to exist as an alluvial gold-mining centre of any importance, as the area now being worked will soon be exhausted. The Awamoko Flat, at the foot of the terraces referred to, has been taken up for dredging purposes by the Premier No. 1 Gold-dredging Company (Limited), and it is expected a dredge will be set to work there about the end of this year. , Hyde and Middlemarch. Taieri Gold-sluicing Company, Hyde (Secretary, Mr. A. Bartleman, Dunedin). —The claim is situated about three miles above Hyde, on the northern bank of the Taieri Eiver. Terrace ground, composed of alluvial deposit among the rocky schist country at the base of the hills above the river, is being worked by hydraulic sluicing. At my visit the face showed a thickness of, say, 15 ft., from 6 ft. to 10 ft. of the upper portion being clay underlaid with heavy stones (mostly basaltic), broken schist and quartz, and washdirt. The claim has been at work since 1898, but during the summer of 1898-99 was stopped for a time owing to a shortage of water. A stoppage of five weeks was also caused by the severe frosts of last winter. Gold-saving is effected by a run of sluice-boxes laid on the ground. Stones are forked back, and the fine material is discharged into the Taieri Eiver. A race three miles long, constructed to carry twelve heads, brings water from Capburn Creek. Pipe-line is about 60 chains long. Pressure at nozzle equal to~a head of 130 ft. Hibernia Claim, Sutton Tanks, near Middlemarch. —This claim is worked by hydraulic sluicing. The ground is similar in character to the general run of the auriferous alluvial ground of the Taieri watershed, and does not call for special comment. Naseby. The water from the Government race has been supplying nine elevators, besides a number of ground-sluicers, whose operations are conducted on a lesser scale. In addition to this source of supply there are six private races—viz., Enterprise Company, Cooper's, M. Young's, J. Horn's, S. Hewitt's, and the Hit or Miss Company—supplying water at a higher level than the Government race commands. From two of these—the Hit or Miss Company and Hewitt's —water is sold when the supply exceeds what is required for their own operations. The Government race supplies on an average about fifty miners throughout the year. Wheeler and party are still elevating at Idaburn. Two elevators are being placed in position in Enterprise Gully in readiness for the spring. One of these (E. Hall and party) will take its supply from the Government race, making ten elevators supplied by it; the other will be worked with water from Cooper's race, which has, I understand, been rented by the owners. Dredging. —Up to the present this class of mining has not been a success, owing to the nature of the ground being unsuitable for dredging. The Naseby Company's dredge has been sold to the Golden Spec Company, and shifted to the claim in Spec Gully Valley. Operations having just commenced, it yet remains to be seen whether the venture will be profitable or not. The Naseby Company, whose claim is situate in the Main or Hogburn Gully, now relies entirely on its elevating plant, experience having proved this to be the more profitable mode of working their ground. The Enterprise Company have sold the dredge which they had working on their claim in Enterprise Gully for removal to Gore. At Spec Gully the Spec Gully Dredging Company has a dredge in process of construction to work ground adjoining Golden Spec Claim, and it is expected to be at work at the end of April. Blackstone Hill. There are only a few parties working in this locality, and the operations are not very extensive, all being engaged ground-sluicing, and these, with the exception of a few miners at Sam-the-German's Gully, obtain their water from the Blackstone Hill Eace, the number thus supplied being eight. One party at Sam-the-German's Gully is reported to be doing well.

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