C—2.

all the ore has to be packed on horses from the mine to Hikutaia to send away for treatment. The greater portion of the ore from this mine has hitherto been forwarded to Freiberg, Germany; but whonjhe Te Aroha Gold- and Silver-mining Company's plant is erected the'ore'can be sent to it for treatment. There have been 5 tons of the lode-material crushed and 20 tons of ore sold, realising in all £1,000. About 100 tons of rich ore is now on hand. The company intend erecting a small plant to treat the ore ; but a plant to treat this class of ore cannot be; erected at_ a small cost to extract anything like a fair percentage of the metals the ore contains ; and, besides this, unless there is a large body of ore in the lodes the erection of a plant for one small mine is scarcely justifiable. It would prove more advantageous to forward it to central reduction-works, such as are now established at Waiorongomai. Ohinbmuei . Distbict. This includes Karangahake, Owharoa, Waitekauri, and Waihi districts. The total quantity of quartz crushed last year was 3,488 tons stone and 308 tons tailings, which yielded 3,6790z. of gold, which is a yield of 2730z. more than for the previous year. During last year, also, large mining operations have been commenced at Karangahake, Waitekauri, and Waihi, which are likely to produce a large increase in the yield for the present year. Kabangahake. Very few of the mines in this district have as yet been worked with success. There is a large percentage of silver and other metals in the ore along with gold, that has as yet baffled all those who have attempted to treat the ore. The ordinary crushing-batteries have been tried and found wanting. The La Monte furnace also has been tried, and proved a failure; andjafter this a battery and amalgamating-pans were erected by Mr. Bailey to treat the ores—the same as adopted in Mexico some fourteen years ago; but this process also proved a failure. And, lastly, Mr. Chambers, of Auckland, made arrangements with the Parkes' Gold and Silver ,^Ores Smelting Company, London, to secure the patent of their process for New Zealand if it proved a success for treating the ores in this district. He also guaranteed the expenses of Mr. Parkes coming to New Zealand to superintend the erection of a plant, and to prove his process capable of dealing with such ores as are found in this district. Any one reading a description of the successful manner in which Parkes's process treated refractory ores sent from the colonies to London would naturally come to the same conclusion as Mr. Chambers—namely, that the erection of a plant in the North Island goldfields'would tend -to make the mining properties in the Karangahake, Te Aroha, Waihi, and Whangamata districts valuable. Mr. Chambers therefore erected a plant at Karangahake. The following is a statement published by the Parkes' Company with reference to their process:— At the invitation of the directors of this company a number of gentlemen met at their experimental works, East Greenwich, to see the patent process in full operation. The inventor, Mr. Parkes, showed the visitors the charge of ore, which consisted of 2cwt. "Alexandra" refractory ore and the fluxes of lime, iron-ore, salt-cake, fluor-spar, and coal—in all 921b. These were all mixed, and the furnace charged. Thereafter Mr. Parkes conducted the party over the works, which consist of a laboratory, smelting - furnace, calcining - furnace, and a cupellingfurnace, and explained the various "processes," which were being conducted in full operation at the time. The chairman of the company, in the course of his remarks, said, " You have seen and have had explained to you the various operations connected with the process, which I may be allowed to repeat and enlarge upon. The raw ore is first crushed roughly, then intimately mixed with the fluxes, and put into the reverberatory smelting-furnace. It is then allowed to smelt for three to four hours,-when the ore and fluxes become one liquid mass of molten material. The slag, which swims on the top in a fine fluid state, is now skimmed off, and the regulus tapped, which flows out into iron or sand moulds. This regulus contains all the gold and silver and other metals. The regulus is allowed to cool and disintegrate. It is then placed in a calcining-furnace, and about half the sulphur burned out of it. It is then mixed with oxide of lead and smelted, and the gold, silver, and copper combine with the lead and form an alloy. When this is considered complete the lead is tapped and run into moulds. This lead is then smelted in the cupelling-furnace, and the lead oxidized in the usual way, leaving behind it the precious metals. The fluxes vary in their kind and proportions according to the particular nature of ore to be operated upon. The operations are also varied to a considerable extent. The regulus of some ores does not require calcination, and the lead is mixed with the ore before being put into the furnace, and in cases may be even mixed with the regulus in the furnace after the slag has been skimmed off. The ore we have been smelting to-day is the ' Alexandra,' from Queensland, which is a very refractory ore, and contains iron, sulphur, load, zinc, copper, and over 50 per cent, of siliceous insoluble matter. In dealing with this ore the operations are conducted without the slightest difficulty, as you have seen to-day, and on a former occasion, when trial-smeltings were made and samples taken of the slag, and assayed by Messrs. Johnson, Matthey, and Co., there were only 2dwt. lOgr. of gold found in the ton of slag, out of 2oz. 12dwt. in the ton of the ore; and 2dwt. lOgr. of silver in the ton of slag, out of lOoz. sdwt. contained in the ton of raw ore. The fluxes used for this particular ore are lime, salt-cake, iron-ore, fluor-spar, and coal—in all, 9201b. to the ton of ore, and costing only 4s. 9id." The following ores have been experimented upon, and have been assayed by Messrs. Johnson, Matthey, and Co. for the company : "We have carefully analysed the samples of ore marked as under, and find the following proportions in every 100 parts:—

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