0.-3

66

HYDRAULIC SLUICING AND ALLUVIAL MINING, INCLUDING GOLD-DREDGING. Otago. Glenore. Alluvial mining in this district is now represented by the operations of the Gold Bank Dredge, a privately owned concern. This dredge was built to operate on the breccia conglomerates underlying the superficial gold-bearing wash already worked by dredging, but the venture has not yet proved successful. A. Ferguson and G. Pettigrew are engaged ground-sluicing, and are prospecting for a reef in the valley above Glenore. Gold (evidently shed from a reef) has been found. Manuka Creek. Manuka Gold-mining Company (Limited), Manuka Hill (Adam McCorkindale, Manager ; R. Pilling, jun., Lawrence, Secretary), (Area of claim, 6 acres). —This claim is now being worked by groundsluicing in a systematic manner. Improvements have been effected with regard to the water-supply and the hydraulic-sluicing plant. The face is 30 ft. in height, and being composed of quartz grits is easily broken down and washed away. The gold obtained is very fine. The tailings are deposited in the Manuka Valley, and have been the source of railway-ballast supply for many years. The friction hitherto existing between the claim-holders and the farmers in the valley of the Tokomairiro River would now appear to have ceased in regard to the alleged pollution of the stream. Waitahuna. Upper German Flat Hydraulic Sluicing Claim (Frank Bell, Manager).—Three working-shareholders find remunerative employment in this claim of 14 acres. Waitahuna Gully. City of Dublin Sluicing Claim (J. Ferris and party).—The breccia conglomerate is brought down by large blasts, and further disintegration is effected by spalling and sluicing the material down a paved ground-sluice. Quilter and Sons' Hydraulic Elevating Claim (Hugh H. Quilter and sons). —Two men still find employment in this claim. The water-supply being poor, operations are not conducted on a large scale. Thompson and Party, Norwegian Claim (C. Thompson, Manager).—Work done on the cementdeposit in this claim has proved it to be payably auriferous, but extremely hard to break down. The operations of the company will probably be confined to the deposit for the future. Five men are employed. Sailor's Gully (Waitahuna) Gold-mining Company (Limited) (A. Barr, Manager).—This company continues to work the claim with fair success. The plant is operating on the cement-deposits. Four men are employed. Waitahuna Gold-dredging Company's Claim (W. Adams and party, Owners ; Frank Whelan, Manager). —The extension of the German Flat water-race to command this claim having been completed, hydraulic sluicing and elevating operations were commenced and have been carried on with fair success. The claim is lit at night time by electric light. Dredging. —Of the three privately owned dredges indicated in last year's report, two continue to operate profitably. The Gordon dredge was closed down during the year, and will probably be dismantled for removal to Victoria. Wether stone's. Golden Crescent Hydraulic Elevating Company (W. Kemp, Manager). —This claim continues to be worked on the usual lines with fair success. The shallow alluvial portion of the claim has now been worked over and operations are being conducted on the conglomerate-deposit. Owing to the hardness of the conglomerate and the poor water-pressure available, great progress cannot be made. The deposit here dips away sharply, and was blocked out on the bottom by Gasgoigne and party in the year 1880. The claim is lighted by the electric light. Eight men are employed. Golden Rise Hydraulic Elevating Company (W. R. Smythe, Manager). —Seven men have been employed in this claim throughout the year. Operations are being conducted on the usual lines on Wetherstone's Flat with good results. The electric light is used on this claim for night-work. Local Industry Gold-mining Company (George Dunnett, Manager).—The claim in Wetherstone's is now worked out, and the race is being extended two miles to command a claim taken up in the lower end of Gabriel's Gully, above Lawrence Township. It is expected that this portion of the gully will pay for reworking. Four men are employed. Paulin's Sluicing Claim. —The plant lately in operation at Bungtown has been transferred to work faulin's Gully and adjoining terrace ground. The Happy Valley dredge obtained good returns up the flat to a line opposite this gully, where the gold-bearing wash cut out. The property is on'the line of strike of the Blue Spur breccia conglomerates through the country. Dredging is now a thing of the past in this district. The Happy Valley dredge has been removed to the Pomahaka River at Kelso. Tuapeka. Blue Spur and Gabriel's Gully Consolidated Gold-mining Company, Blue Spur (J. Howard Jackson, General Manager ; J. Uren, Mine-nianager).—Gold was discovered in Gabriel's Gully by Gabriel Read in the year 1861, when operations were conducted in the alluvial deposits lying in gullies and on the neighbouring terraces. In 1862, the miners commenced to extract gold from the breccia-conglomerate