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Road, Arrowtown to Macetotvn. —This is a road along the gorge of the Arrow Eiver to avoid a number of crossings; it joins the road which was constructed to Macetown some nine years ago. The estimated cost of the work is £450, of which £300 has been paid. Track, Pleasant Creole Terrace. —-This is a track which was authorised some two years ago, and has been constructed, but the grades are far too steep to be a serviceable track. A grant of £130 was authorised for its construction, but until such time as the lower portion of the track is deviated, so as to get a good grade into Pleasant Creek, no money will be paid. Boad up Dart Biver. —It was represented to the Government that the upper portion of the bed of the Dart Eiver was taken up in dredging-claims, and that dredges were going to be constructed to work it. A road was made through places where the drays or sleighs could not follow the river, to allow machinery to be brought on to the ground. The cost of this work was £200, which has been paid ; but there is no sign yet of any dredges being constructed to work the riverbed. Tracks, Western Sounds. —A reconnaissance survey was made by one of the Public Works engineers to ascertain if a road could be constructed between Lake Wakatipu and Milford Sound. The work was put in hand some three years ago, and a line of road from Lake Wakatipu up the side of the Greenstone Eiver to Lake Howden surveyed; a survey was also commenced at the Milford Sound end, and carrie lup to near the head of Lake Ada. It was deemed desirable to construct this road with prison labour, and forty-five prisoners were sent down to Milford Sound to construct a road from the Sound up to Sutherland's Falls. After being there for about eighteen months they were taken away, as it was found too costly to. have the work carried out in this manner. The prisoners made about 40 chains of dray-road and a mile and a-half of horse-track during the time they were there. A party of men were sent down in the beginning of summer last year, and they have constructed a track from the Landing at the head of Lake Ada to about one mile beyond the Poseidon Hut, and they cleared the track from this on to Sutherland's Falls, and put up new bridges, so that visitors or tourists will have no difficulty now in getting from the Sounds to the Falls. They also constructed a foot-track up to the top of the Bowen Falls. The total cost of this work up to the end of March last was £3,618 18s. Bd. Horse Track, Waiau to Preservation Inlet; and Boad, Cromarty to Beefs. —The survey has been carried on during the last year for some three miles nearer the Waiau Eiver from the Preservation Inlet end, and the formation of a horse-track completed to Wilson's Eiver, a distance of seven miles from the Inlet. Contracts are now in progress for metalling portions of the road, and where metal cannot be procured corduroy is being used. The formation is far too soft to admit of horse-traffic, even during the summer months. This road is in the right direction for opening up the country between Preservation and the Waiau, but is of no use to get machinery brought on to work the reefs, which are about three miles further up the gorge of Wilson's Eiver than where the road crosses. A survey is now being made from Kisbec Bay, where the Township of Cromarty is laid out, to the prospector's claim, with the view of constructing a tramway. The worst grade on the line is lin 10, and this is only for a short distance. The whole of the line has been located, and it is now being pegged out, the distance being 5 miles 18 chains. The cost of the works in this neighbourhood up to to the end of March last was £2,126 9s. Id. Tracks, Stewart Island. —A grant of £200 was authorised to construct tracks in Stewart Island. This work is being done under the supervision of the Survey Department at Invercargill. The expenditure up to the end of March last was £37 16s. Artesian Well-boring, Maniatoto Plains. —A contract was let to Job Osborne, of Christchurch, to put down a bore to a depth of 500 ft. on the Maniatoto Plains, the site selected being near the side of the main road to Dunedin, about 30 chains on the Kyeburn side of the Eweburn Hotel. The contract is completed, and arrangements made with the contractor to bore to a further depth of 150 ft. The material gone through is of a very compact character, and would be capable of resisting a strong pressure of water. If a loose porous stratum can be met with, there is a great possibility of an artesian well being got. The contract for the 500 ft. bore was £550, of which £281 3s. 6d. has been paid.

PROSPECTING ASSOCIATIONS. The miners in different goldfields in the colony have formed prospecting associations, and done a great deal of useful work during last year. The greatest interest in this work is being taken by the miners on the West Coast, especially in Westland, of the southern portion of which there is very little yet known about. Almost in every little centre associations have been formed, and money subscribed, to carry on prospecting operations; and subsidies have been given towards this work principally in accordance with Part XV. of the regulations made under "The Mining Act, 1891." Subsidies of the following aggregate amounts have been paid to different associations in each of the goldfields counties—namely: Ohinemuri, £20 Is. 4d.; Inangahua, £171 ss. lid.; Westland, £659 Os. lid.; and Otago, £2 Is. lOd. : making a total of £852 10s. that has been paid towards prospecting during the past year. There were several prospecting parties sent out by the Thames Miners' Association, and some of these have recently discovered an auriferous lode, which is considered payable for working. No subsidy has yet been paid to the associations in this county.

SCHOOLS OP MINES. The schools of mines are continuing to do good work, and more interest seems to be taken in them as year by year passes by. The mine-managers on all the principal quartz-fields now readily acknowledge the necessity and utility of men who intend to follow up mining having a good