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of trouble. Dredges properly designed and built for the work would, in many places in the West Coast District, doubtless give very good results, but the capital cost of such machines would be undoubtedly greater than the general run of the dredges now employed. There are, however, under existing conditions, some dredging concerns on the West Coast which are very profitable undertakings. The commercial side of the subject is dealt with by Mr. Warden Kenrick so far as dredging operations throughout his sub-district are concerned, and as there are more dredges in that part of the West Coast goldfields than in any other, the average results obtained by them may 7bo accepted as a very fair criterion for the remainder. In the Southern District dredging is being very steadily carried on with, on the whole, very good results. The most phenomenal returns were obtained by the Electric Company's dredges, the No. 2 having won 1,265 oz. and the No. 1 1,273 oz. of gold for one week's work in each instance. This latter is the highest yield yet recorded for a single week. These dredges work at the low end of the Kawarau Eiver, near Cromwell. A short distance below the confluence of this river with the Clutha is the claim of the Hartley 7 and Eiley dredge, which has on different occasions obtained very large returns, and for some time held the record in this respect for the entire colony. The upper part of the Clutha Eiver, for a few miles above Cromwell, has of late come to the front. Some dredges were placed on this section of the river a few years ago, but experience proved them to be too small and light for successful work. The present dredges are much larger and more powerful, and whilst not obtaining such large weekly returns as has been the lot of dredges on richer portions of the same river below Cromwell (and also on the Kawarau Eiver), they have the advantage of not being nearly so much subject to stoppage by floods or troubled with such quantities of travelling drift. Alexandra is still the chief centre of the dredging industry of Otago, a large number of dredges being at work on the Clutha Eiver and at the adjacent banks. Dredges are also at work in the gorge below Alexandra, but as the water in flood time is deep and the current very strong, these dredges can only work to advantage during a portion of the year. In this respect they are at a disadvantage in comparison with others above the town, where some of the claims comprise both river and bank areas, the latter being generally available for work at times when operations on the river cannot be conducted under favourable conditions. Below the gorge a number of dredges are at work on the river above and below Eoxburgh ; also several others lower down in the neighbourhood of Miller's Flat. On the Waipori field nine dredges (giving direct employment to sixty men) were at work when I visited the locality early this year. Some of the dredges in this locality are worked by water-pressure. In Southland, the valley of the Waikaka Eiver has been proved a good payuble field for dredging operations. The wash is not rough or unduly tight, nor the ground very deep as compared with some of the areas on the Clutha Eiver, consequently the dredges do not need to be quite as large and powerful, and the capital cost is correspondingly less. Similar working-conditions apply to the other areas in Southland where dredging operations are carried on, and more particularly at Chatton, Charlton, and Waimumu. At Waikaia the ground generally is perhaps not quite so easy, but, taken all round, it does not present any working difficulties of moment. Dredging operations were attempted some few ' years ago in this locality without its potentialities for this class of mining being properly known, but, as a result of the success which characterised the industry in other parts of Southland, ground away from the river was well prospected, and found to be payably auriferous as well as suitable for being worked by dredges. At the end of the year there were about a dozen dredges at work or under erection in this neighbourhood, and approximately double that number in the Waikaka Valley, the total number of working dredges for the Southland goldfields being forty-six. With very few exceptions, steam is the motive power used for driving the machinery on board gold-dredges, locomotive and return-tube boilers being general, and the engines usually of the horizontal cross-compound type. In a few instances —where water under pressure is available—the machinery is worked by water through the medium of a Pelton wheel, dredges so equipped being successfuly operated at Waipori and Cardrona, whilst a similar arrangement is being adopted at one of the Waikaia claims. Electricity has not come into use to the extent which might have been expected, probably owing to the fact that when the state of the Clutha Eiver is most suitable for dredging—viz., in the winter months, when there is no water coming from melting snow —the water-supply, usually snowwater from the mountains, for driving dynamos for the generation of electrical current could not be depended upon. In the neighbourhood of Alexandra the Earnscleugh No. 3 dredge (a very large and powerful machine) is electrically driven, the current being generated by a water-driven dynamo, and I understand that the success which has attended this installation has resulted in the decision of the owners to similarly equip another large dredge. There appears little doubt that in such localities as Waikaka and Waikaia, in Southland, as well as Alexandra, Cromwell, Eoxburgh, and Miller's Flat, in Otago, electric energy could be cheaply produced by steam-power plants, which might be erected at a convenient lignite-pit. Fuel would thus be handy and cheap, and the most modern and economically worked steam-plant could be adopted, the electrical current being conveyed to the dredges by cables in the usual way. Such an arrangement could not fail to prove more economical than the present system, under which heavy expenses in cartage of coal (as well as loss of time in handling the same) and the wages of a stoker are necessarily incurred. If dredge-owners in the districts referred to would form electrical-power companies for the purpose of meeting their own requirements, there is every reason to think that such undertakings would be commercially successful. In one instance, where coal-carting was very costly, the installation of oil-engines was decided upon by the owners. The question of stripping off the surface soil and overburden above the auriferous wash where dredges are working on flats (e.g., the Southland, Waipori, and a few other dredging-fields) has not, to my mind, received anything like the amount of practical attention to which it is, by reason of its