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not great, have been satisfactory. At Blue Spur there are many small claims which appear to provide their owners with a good living, while the Minerals (Limited) towards the end of the year struck a good patch which realised £1,113, and enabled the company to pay off all liabilities and place £558 to its credit at the bank. About Kanieri Forks, Woodstock, Arthurstown, and Craig's Freehold small parties appear to be doing fairly well; but the main alluvial field at Woodstc ck suffers considerably from want of water, which, if obtainable, would doubtless result in far larger and more remunerative mining operations. The various mining privileges at Back Creek, or Seddon's Terrace, now being worked are giving good results for the money invested. The subsidised tunnel of Johnson and party has paid good wages to the workmen since completion. At present two layers of gravel are being turned out, known respectively as the Blue Wash and the Brighton bottom. Quartz-reefing.—The Wilberforce Beefs are about 5,000 ft. above the sea-level, and in the range dividing Canterbury from Westland. During the year several of the prospering claims have been worked with a view to defining the quartz reefs, which have been proved to exist on all the claims excepting one. In the Wilson's Beward a tunnel has been driven 100 ft. below the surface where the outcrop appears, and the reef has been found at that depth to be over 20 ft. wide, and greater in width than at the outcrop. Tests made have proved the stone to be highly payable. No work has been done on Grey's, Hyndman's, Billett's, Mcintosh's, Hutchison's, and McClay's claims, as most of them were only taken up at the end of the year. On Fidde's Beward—which contains three distinct lines of gold-bearing reef —a very good reef has been traced to a length of fully 30 chains :11 chains of this has been carefully prospected, and the reef proved to be of an average width of over 2 ft. In the 11 chains the reef is exposed in sixteen places, and yields prospects equal to 2 oz. to the ton. Baucke's claim has been well prospected. The reef in Fidde's Beward continues in this claim, but in addition there aie two other outcrops. Two of these reefs yield from 1 oz. to 2 oz. to the ton, but the ore in the other is of lower grade. Considerable prospecting has been done on Pfahlert and party's claim ; the reef has been traced a distance of 10 chains, and proved to be of an average thickness of 34 ft. and highly payable. Boss District. There is not much to report as having occurred in this district during the year. In dredging matters, the Prince of Wales and the Kohinoor went into liquidation. The former was bought by several persons previously interested in her, and under their management there has been a considerable increase in the returns of gold. The latter was sold, and deported. In sluicing matters, the evergreen Mont dOr claim has continued to declare regular dividends to the fortunate shareholders, and is likely to continue doing so. The McLeod's Terrace Company has not been so fortunate. The want of an adequate supply of water has been a considerable handicap to the mining operations, and the blue clay or pug in the claim is a great obstacle. An unexpected fall of this material caused the death of one of the workmen, who was highly respected in the locality and wherever he was known. There is no quartz-mining in this district. I cannot conclude my report on this subdistrict without drawing attention to the tremendous possibilities which await the capitalistic investor. At Boss, where the Mount dOr Sluicing Company lias won from Mother Earth 40,700 oz. of gold and divided in profits £52,200, there exists a large flat known as the Boss Flat. One man named Cassias obtained from this flat over 22,000 oz. of gold in two years, and at the top end, known as Jones's Flat, over 5 tons of gold have been obtained. The old Boss (Limited) Company —which worked the Boss Flat until operations were stopped by water— obtained 2,500 oz., and its big shaft (which was sunk to a depth of 392 ft.) passed through eight distinct layers of gold-bearing wash without finding the bottom. How many more layers or levels of payable wash there are below this shaft no one can tell. That such a marvellous deposit is not being exploited to-day is more than remarkable, since the Government is offering the whole of this area (100 acres) and a subsidy of £15,000 to any person or company whose proposed method ot working is approved hy the Government Engineer. That this flat can be drained to a depth of 500 ft. if necessary is proved by the Beaconsfield Mine in Tasmania, where 5,000 gallons of water are lifted per minute trom a shaft 2,000 ft. deep, in four lifts, with plunger pumps, at a cost of £10 per annum per horse-power. The old company failed because it tried to drain this flat with water-power. With the completion of the railway to Boss —in about a year's time —coal could be landed at the boilers on this claim lor 15s. per ton, and the flat easily t 'drained with an outlay of £50,000. Okarito District. Dredging.— During the early part of the year a dredge was worked on the Salt-water Lagoon on tribute, but as sufficient gold was not obtained to pay expenses operations ceased. The Five-mile Company attempted to place a dredge on the Five-mile, but owing to the difficulty of landing the machinery the attempt was abandoned. Alluvial.— ■ V"cry little work has been done. The Westland Company and Batson at the"Waiho have opened up a large "block of country on the south side of the Waiho Biver, but it is impossible to say with what result. The company employs nine men, and Batson one man. In the early part of the year a great deal of beach-gold was obtained. A Mr. Gibb and his family are credited with getting between 800 and 1,000 pounds' worth in a few weeks. It was reported at the end of the year that good coarse-gold-carrying quartz had been got at the Qmeru Biver. A prospecting party of two men are working in Cook's Biver, but with what result is unknown. The number of applications in the Warden's Court fell from thirty-four in 1904 to twenty-one in 1905, showing there is not much mining development in this district.