C—3.

McCann and party. —An extension of the low-level tail-race has enabled this partyj to develop the western section of their claim with encouraging results. Four men are employed. Neil and party. —This party having completed an extension of 400 ft. on the main drainage-tunnel, and re-erected their elevating plant, an area of ground is available for sluicing which should provide lucrative employment for several years. Five men are employed. Milligan and party (six men). —Work is confined to crushing a deposit of cemented sand, with payable results. The battery and mining plant are maintained in good order. Senior and party (five men). —Sluicing and elevating on the usual lines is the method adopted by this party for treating the auriferous sands. Addison's Long Tunnel,— During the year the tail-race tunnel has been extended and the elevating plant removed and re-erected. A new face is now being opened up, from which payable returns are expected. Four men are employed. Charleston. Powell's Elevating Claim. —The work of elevating the auriferous beach-sands is being attended with a fair amount of success. A plentiful supply of water under a good pressure is available, thereby enabling low-grade sands to be profitably treated which would not otherwise pay. Shetland Beach. —A number of beach-combers continue to work the auriferous black sands on this beach, apparently with satisfactory results. Lavery and Butterworth. —This elevating claim provides steady and lucrative employment for two men. Grey Valley. Upper Blackwater. —Owing to inefficient water-supply, sluicing operations have not been attended with very satisfactory results. Duffers' Creek. —D. Baybutt employs two men ground-sluicing. A water-right for an additional five heads was granted during the year, which, when brought on to the ground, will enable the work to be carried out on more extensive lines. Orwell Creek. —J. McAuley is operating on the elevated gravels of Napoleon Hill with very favourable results. Nelson Creek. —Although dredging is the principal form of the industry in this locality, several parties are making a living-wage ground-sluicing, while the high terraces in the vicinity of Welshman's and the adjacent creeks, which are supposed to have shed the gold so profitably worked in past years, are being prospected by tunnelling. Three subsidised parties are engaged in this work, and should they be successful in locating a payable lead a large area will await development. Moonlight Creek. —The Shetland Consolidated. Sluicing Company are conducting operations on the high terrace between Moonlight Creek and Garden Gully, but the results so far cannot be considered satisfactory. Several small parties continue to find employment in this locality. Montgomery Terrace Sluicing Company. —This company has met with a series of misfortunes during the year. Continuous slips on the water-race and a breakage in the storage-dam have greatly hindered sluicing operations. Healey's Gully Sluicing Company. —Work during the year has been directed to repairing the headrace, driving tunnels, and erecting fluming preparatory to resuming sluicing on the claim. Nine men are employed. Bell Hill Syndicate. —This syndicate continue to conduct sluicing operations with moderate success. Eight men are employed. Saunders and party, Maori Gully. —This claim has worked continuously during the year. Owing to the hard and uneven nature of the sandstone bottom, a lot of time is occupied in bringing up the deep tail-race to the working-face. The actual sluicing-time for the year did not average quite 150 hours per month, for a return of approximately 9 dwt. per hour. The breastwork of the dam. in the New River has been raised 4 ft., considerably increasing its holding capacity. Gold won for the year amounted to 663 oz. 11 dwt. 4 gr., valued at £2,624 15s. lid. An average of six men were employed. Try Again Terrace. —A subsidy of £200 was granted to Sweetman and party to assist in driving a prospecting-tunnel 1,100 ft. This work has been completed without success : the wash in places carried gold, but not in payable quantities. Griffith and party (two men) were granted a subsidy of £20 towards extending their prospeetingtunnel. The results attained are not very encouraging. Barrytown. In this district hydraulic elevation of the auriferous sands, with subsequent treatment over tables lined with miners' plush, is being attended with very satisfactory results. The Barrytown Flat and Mawhera claims, working on these methods, employ an average of about thirty men. Hokitika. This centre of alluvial mining still maintains lucrative employment for a. large number of private parties. In several of the claims work is confined to driving out the richest portions of the auriferous drifts, and it is the general opinion that, were an efficient water-supply available for hydraulic sluicing, a large area of ground would pay handsomely, which cannot be profitably worked, under existing conditions. Hokitika Prospecting League. —The parties sent out by the league were not successful in discovering anything of a payable nature, and therefore operations have been suspended indefinitely.

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