C.-3

108

170 : total, 181. Applications heard during 1905, 169 ; applications pending on 31st December, 1905, 12 : total, 181. Of the applications heard, 5 were objected to, 139 were granted, 12 refused, and 18 withdrawn. Suits called on during 1905, 8, as follows : Heard, 3 ; withdrawn, 1; struck out, 3 ; pending on the 31st December, 1905, 1. Miners' rights issued, 518; water-race registrations and renewals under repealed Acts, 10. Bevenue—Miners' rights, £129 10s.; water-races, £2 12s. 6d.; registration certificates, 4s. ; rents, £188 10s. 3d. ; miscellaneous, £2,621 13s. Id. ; territorial revenue, £2,989 Is. 3d. ; fees and fines in stamps, £39 3s. : total, £5,970 14s. Id. I have, &c, W. G. B. Kenrick, The Under-Secretary, Mines Department, Wellington. Warden.

Mr. Warden Acheson, Hokitika, to the Under-Secretary, Mines Department, Wellington. Sir,— Warden's Office, Hokitika, 13th April, 1906. I have the honour to report concerning gold-mining operations in the Westland Mining District for the year ending the 31st December, 1905, as follows : — Kumara District. Dredging. —All the dredging in this district is confined to the Greenstone Creek. During the year four dredges worked in that locality. The Greenstone Junction dredge averaged 11 oz. per week. During the big flood in June this dredge sank, and a great deal of time was lost in refloating her. She is at present being worked by tributers. The New Greenstone Gold Syndicate's dredge averaged about 18 oz. per week. Messrs. Cowie and Bice, who have the old Bun Tuck dredge, .have worked to the Blackwater Creek, and averaged 40 oz. per week. The Three-mile dredge, which is owned by a Dunedin company, obtained on an average 20 oz. during the same period. Alluvial. —Nothing very notable occurred during the }'ear. Three prospecting shafts were sunk at Larrikin's by a private association without any result. At Dillmanstown, three claims are working with success—viz., McGrath's, the Long Tunnel Gold-mining Company, and Cullen and party. The Long Tunne' Company paid two dividends of 3s. per shire. Vooasovich and party worked at Tramway Terrace, but the ground did not turn out to be very rich. At Cape Terrace, about five sluicing claims are working with varying success. In some cases a scarcity of water affects the returns considerably. At Hayes's Terrace, four claims have been worked —by Gilbert and Tomasi, Mcllroy and party, Evenden and a Court, and some Chinese, with fair average results. At the Greenstone, Chinamen have been sluicing along Quinn's Terrace, near the Three-mile, and up Fuchsia Creek with (so far as I can ascertain) average success, and the same applies to the five claims which are being worked in the same neighbourhood. Quartz-mining. —There is no mining of this description in this locality. Stafford and Goldsborough Districts. Dredging. —A new company was formed in the place of the Stafiord-Waimea Gold-dredging Company, which went into liquidation in 1904. The company was registered on the 17th May, 1905, it commenced operations immediately after that date, and worked continuously to the end of the year for a return of 511 oz. 10 dwt. of gold, value £1,969 4s. 6d., divisible after paying expenses among seven shareholders. Alluvial. —At the beginning of the year 1905 377 acres were held under license. During that year 48 acres were taken up and 133 acres surrendered. From this it will appear that the area over which operations are being conducted has decreased; but I am quite certain that more work has been done and a greater quantity of gold obtained than during the previous year. The want of water prevents larger and more successful operations being carried on. At Middle Branch Flat, where there is a Government supply of water, most of the claims have been working continuously, and with excellent results; and the locality is regarded as a field for mining operations for some considerable time to come, especially when the holdings—several of which are at present locked up owing to want of connection with the Waimea Main. Tdil-race —become connected with the shidge-channel. At Callaghan's, the miners are now getting a supply of water from the Government race, and are in consequence working continuously and with much better results than hitherto. The Wheel of Fortune Hydraulic Sluicing Claim, which was purchased early in the year by a local syndicate, has been working very steadily, and the new owners are quite satisfied with the result of the year's operations. In other parts of ihe district miners have to depend to a large extent on the rainfall; and this results in disaster when a dry season occurs. German Gully, Fourth, and Fifth Terraces, and Lamplough would, I am confident, with a little better supply of water pay handsomely and provide employment for a large number of men. Quartz-mining. —There is none in this district. , , Hokitika District. Dredging. —There have been only two dredges working in this locality—the Montezuma and the Woodstock. The former has been greatly hampered by the sea breaking into the dam and either sinking her or silting her up ; this last happened towards the end of the year, and caused operations to be discontinued. I may say that since then she has been dismantled. The latter is working continuously, but, being owned privately, it is impossible to ascertain with what result. Certainly the fact of constant working would lead to the conclusion that the dredge must be paying the owners w T ell. Alluvial. —The returns from this source during the year have been up to the average of recent years. At Humphrey's Gully the Consolidated Claim is being worked by tributers, and the results, although