ridges and crevices of the river beds. It is usually fine, the largest nugget yet found being one of 10 ozs., from Rocky River. In Bedstead gully is the Perseverance Lode at the junction of the blue slates with the felspathic rock, quartz from which yielded 9 dwts. to 1 ozs.; and the associated minerals were iron and copper pyrites, galena and blende. An attempt was made to work this lode, but resulted in failure. At Mount Arthur, Takaka, some rich reefs have been recently discovered, and have attracted great attention, steps being taken to commence work upon them.

West Wanganui.-Gold was first found here in 1862, and the field was proclaimed in 1873, but has not been successful; the cement requires battery crushing, and yields only about 5 dwts. to the ton.

Westport and Charleston.-The mining in these districts. is all alluvial, and is fairly profitable where sufficient water is available for sluicing. The tailings escaping from the sluicings are reworked by the " fly catchers," who recover the very fine gold carried away with the waste water by "tables" placed in the streams. After storms the grey sand on the beach is swept away, and exposes a thick layer of black sand, consisting chiefly of crystals of magnetic iron, and containing gold, the washing of which affords employment to a number of miners, with very good results. The discovery of reefs is reported up the Mokikinui and Waimangaroa Rivers, and at Cascade Creek, up the Buller River.

Lyell.-Most of the gold in this district is obtained from the alluvial deposits, but remarkably rich quartz leaders and reefs are worked, yielding as much in some cases as 20 ozs. to a ton. The reefs on the ranges between Lyell and New Creek are now worked on a large scale, and yield 102 dwts. per ton at the United Alpine mine, though some at the Maruia have averaged 3 to 4 ozs.

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Inangahua, or Reefton. This is a very rich district. In almost every gully on the slate bottoms coarse alluvial gold and quartz has been found. Traversing the ancient slates and sandstones, forming the framework of the country, are

numerous quartz reefs, which have been opened and worked with such satisfactory results, as to constitute this next to Auckland the most extensive and important reefing district in New Zealand. The lodes are not usually very wide, but are well defined, and appear to improve in depth. The Golden Fleece Company have a splendid gold bearing reef at 600 feet depth. Considerable excitement has recently been caused by the discovery of rich stone at several widely separated points, the Welcome Mine having yielded in the year ending 31st March, 1882, 13,365 ozs. gold from 3960 tons stone, or 3 ozs. 8 dwts. per ton, paying in dividends £34,500. The general average yield of the district in 1881, was 132 dwts. per ton, and in 1882, was 1 oz. 617 dwts. At Cement Town, at the head of Lanky's Gully, is a consolidated quartz gravel or cement, from 1 to 6 feet thick, which was formerly worked, and was abandoned when the reefs were discovered; but the working is now being resumed, partly by crushing and partly by sluicing.

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Westland is the most important gold-producing province in New Zealand, all being obtained from the beds of late tertiary or recent age. The gold has originally been derived most probably from leaders and veins in the beds of the Maitai (Carboniterous) Series, which constitute the neighbouring ranges. Enormous denudation has taken place, probably from glacial action, and the detritus has been carried to the bottoms of the valleys, and there spread out by the glacial rivers, the effect of which action would be to "sluice" the gold and cause it to lodge principally in these river beds or bottoms. In some instances there would seem to have been a succession of such actions. At Ross there are 6 of these "bottoms" in a thickness of 400 feet. As glacial action ceased the rivers would begin to cut for themselves newer channels, the tendency of which would be to grow ever straighter and deeper, the accumulated deposits would be left in elevated terraces, and the bends and deviations of the older tortuous river beds would be cut off and left in these terraces. This is precisely how these "leads" are now found; the whole mass of gravels is

sometimes auriferous in a small degree, but it is in the old beds of the rivers that the rich "pay dirt" is found. In many cases pits are sunk, as at Woodstock, where below 50 or 60 feet of gravel is a pay bed from 2 feet to 10 feet thick, yielding from 4 dwts. to 1 oz. to the load of dirt. This is mined and wound by a whip, or windlass to the surface to be sluiced; claims thus worked are known as "Feeder claims". Often long and costly tunnels are driven to reach and drain these leads. At Waimea and Kumara the drift is auriferous for 60 feet deep from the surface, in what has evidently been a bend in the Teremakau river, the present channel of which, is now 60 feet below. In Humphrey's Gully the wash dirt is 100 to 300 feet thick, and auriferous throughout; and so at numerous other localities, the general features being very similar in all. The principal difficulty in working these high level terrace deposits has been want of water, and next to that the disposal of the immense mass of waste or tailings, but many miles of water races and tail races have been constructed, and hydraulicing and sluicing are now extensively and successfully carried on. The districts are Greymouth, Arnold, Ahaura, Waimea and Kumara, Kanieri and Hokitika, and Okarito, in none of which has quartz mining yet been established. In Greymouth, near Brunnerton, is the remarkable lode known as Langdon's, 9 feet wide, 2 feet of which is compact auriferous stibnite, the remainder being quartz carrying stibnite, and a little gold. Near Kanieri is a well defined reef 10 feet thick, and near Waimea several leaders from 1 to 5 feet thick, the stone carrying visible gold. The district will probably become an important reefing one when the present alluvial workings begin to shew signs of exhaustion.

Otago. The schistose rocks, which are believed to have been the original repository of the gold-bearing veins, constitute the solid geology of about half this province, but so great has been the glacial denudation which they have undergone, that they are rarely seen at the surface, being hidden by the terraces and plains formed by resulting gravels and detritus. These gravels are almost always auriferous, though the gold

is not uniformly disseminated throughout, some parts being richer than others. In some instances the gravels are compacted, and form cements requiring to be crushed to liberate the gold. In many cases the gravels have been washed, reassorted and rearranged by the present rivers and streams, (which follow a course differing from the ancient drainage system of the country), and the gold has been so concentrated as to form very rich deposits. These are the River and placer diggings, which, since the discoveries of Gabriel Reed, in 1861, have yielded such fabulous riches, and the gold in these is often associated with platinum, zircons, garnets; black hematite, and scheelite. The province is divided into the following districts.

Hindon, near Dunedin.

The alluvial gold is almost exhausted. Several well defined quartz reefs are known, and have been worked, but the yield was not considered satisfactory, and the mines are closed.

Tuapeka, on the north of the Clutha River, chiefly alluvial workings. The cements of this district lie in basins in the hollows of the older schists, and are often from 60 to 300 feet thick, shewing "color" of gold throughout, but the payable parts being somewhat patchy. These have been tried by working the whole mass by hydraulicing and ground sluicing, and also by selecting the richer parts for battery treatment; but the results have not been satisfactory, and they are now almost abandoned. At Gabriel's Gully an attempt is being made to rework the immense deposits of tailings left from former earlier diggings, by sluicing on a large scale with Perry's hydraulic elevator, and should this turn out a success, it will probably cause a revival in many districts now nearly abandoned. At Waipori are reefs yielding from 10 to 19 dwts. per ton, worked on a small scale. Waikaia is an

alluvial district only.

Oamaru and Mount Ida districts are chiefly alluvial, and most of the surface deposits shew diminishing yields. Hydraulicing is followed in some cases, but the results are

not very profitable.

At Serpentine some reefs are being opened with encouraging prospects.

Dunstan and Wakatipu districts give employment to a large number of alluvial miners, the Clutha River throughout its course and its tributaries, being all auriferous, though much of the easier worked ground is becoming exhausted. The bed of the Clutha is worked by floating dredges at many points, and in some cases with considerable profit. But the future prosperity of these districts will probably largely depend on the working of the reefs near Cromwell, Macetown and Shotover. These are contained in laminated mica and clay schists, which form a broken and mountainous country, with valleys three or four thousaud feet deep. At Macetown there are five or more well defined reefs, bearing nearly N. W., and varying from 2 ft. to 14 ft. wide. The matrix is quartz and breccia, the quartz carrying free gold and auriferous pyrites, in irregular shoots, richest where the pyrites are most abundant. The general yield has been from 1oz. to 1oz. to the ton, though some of the leaders have given as much as 5 ozs., and 300 tons crushed by the Maryborough Company, in 1881-2, yielded 4 ozs. per ton. So great is the elevation of this country that work cannot be carried on for at least five months in winter; and the want of roads is a great hindrance to the proper development of the mines. At Shotover there is a reef 12 feet wide, which, however, has not yet proved very rich.

Longwood.-Some alluvial mining is still carried on here. and some reefs, not very well defined, bearing N. W., intersect the slates, conglomerates and breccias of the Longwood range, the gold being extremely patchy, and no very successful results having been attained, so far.

Fineness.-As already mentioned all gold is alloyed with silver, and the degree to which this obtains, varies greatly in New Zealand, alluvial being as a rule finer than reef goid. That from Otago is 22 to 23 carats fine, equal to 92·57 to 95·98 per cent; while from the Thames, Mr. Skey examined 12 samples, the results being gold from 43.2 to 60.6 per cent,