47

C.—2

Lively interest continues to be taken in the search for scheelite on the mountain-ranges at the head of Lake Wakatipu. In connection with this industry seventeen prospecting licenses and four mineral licenses were granted. The field of operations has been considerably extended, but as most of the outcrops discovered are above the snow-level the work of prospecting and development is limited to the summer months, and is further retarded by the precipitous nature of the country. A large amount of scheelite was produced, and the producers and prospectors are Very optimistic as to the future of this field. There is a prospect of Glenorchy again becoming a reefing centre. A Melbourne syndicate has taken up a special quartz claim, two prospecting licenses, and other privileges in the Richardson Eange on the left bank of the Rees River. It is the intention of the syndicate to extensively carry on prospecting and development operations in connection with the old Invincible Mine, from which about twenty-five years ago a large amount of gold was taken. Several claims were taken up in and about the Shotover and Arrow Rivers by working miners, but generally the condition of these fields is the same as it was last year. Two dredges are still being worked in the Cardrona Valley, and several parties continue to carry on sluicing operations. No new ground was taken up. Waikaia-Gore. Six dredges are at work in the Waikaia Valley, three in the Charlton Creek, and thirteen in the Waikaka Valley. Two ceased work during the year. A new claim was taken up in the Mataura River, near Gore ; a dredge was built upon it and commenced operations. Forty-four applications were dealt with at Waikaia, but most of them related to existing privileges. Sluicing operations were actively carried on on the several fields, but there were no new ventures worthy of note. I have, &c, H. A. Young, Warden.

ANNEXURE C.

EXTRACTS POM THE REPORTS OF GOVERNMENT WATER-RACE MANAGERS. Waimea-Kumara Water-race. —Mr. James Rochford, Manager. Waimea Race. The cash received for sales of water from this race for the year ended the 31st March, 1913, was £747 ss. 6d., and the expenditure for the same period on management, gauging, maintenance, and repairs amounted to £590 14s. Id., showing a credit balance of £156 11s. sd. on the transactions for the year. The average number of rimers supplied with water was 32-08, a decrease of 0-08 on the previous year ; and the approximate quantity of gold obtained by them was 1,603 oz., having a value of £6,251 14s. The sales of water amounted to £766 Is. 7d., a decrease of £63 Is. 4d. on the previous year. The reduced sales does not indicate a falling-off in the demand for water in the Goldsborough or Stafford districts, but was entirely due to the fact that the whole of the water had to be turned off for at least one day every week for the last nine months of the year, to carry out the repairs to the race. The cash received was £90 10s. less, and the expenditure on gauging, maintenance, and repairs was £8 6s. 7d. less, than during the preceding year. The approximate quantity of gold obtained by the miners was 99 oz. less than during the previous year, representing a decrease in value of £386 2s. Morgan and party (late Waimea Hydraulic Sluicing Company) used water regularly during the year, but I regret to state that the results were far from satisfactory. Linklater and party worked both their claims during the year, with satisfactory results, and purchased water to the value of £223 17s. 4d. This party has purchased water to the value of £994 os. 2d. since the siphon to Lower German Gully was completed some four years and a half ago. At Tunnel Terrace five parties have been supplied with water from the race during the year, and there is no indication whatever of a falling-off in the demand for water in this locality. In March, 1912, a sum of £2,020 was granted by the Department to repair the Waimea Water-race, from the outer end of the Waimea siphon to the terminus of branch B, a distance of over seven miles. The repairs were started in July, and since that time six miles of the race from the siphon downwards has been repaired. The flumings are well done, and are capable, as they now stand, of carrying fortyfive heads of water ; but I made provision for materially increasing their carrying-capacity (should occasion arise) by leaving the studs of boxing long enough to take an extra 10 in. plank on the sides. The 70 chains of race widened between the Tunnel Terrace Extension and Goldsborough has now a carrying-capacity about equal to that of the new flumings. When the repairs are completed to Tunnel Terrace it will have the effect of increasing the present supply at that point by about four heads. This extra water represents the leakage that has been running to waste for years past through the old flumings, and, apart from the many other advantages gained, should itself pay the whole cost of the repairs in less than seven years.