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brought from the range on the east side of the valley has already been utilised. Were a more abundant supply of water available there would be an increase in the number of miners and a corresponding increase of the gold production of the district. The miners state that almost anywhere payable gold deposits can be found on the banks of the Matakitaki from Hampden to the junction of the Glenroy. A dredge, the " Matakitaki Dredge," is at work on the river, and employs a number of hands in this form of gold-mining. Block JOTX.—This block is of small extent ; it is four miles in length, and extending along each side of Doughboy Creek, contains an area of 2,560 acres. The lower part of it lies within the Buller Valley, on the south side of the river, from the head of Fern Flat to Long Ford. Beyond this the creek enters the hills, and for a time the valley is narrow, but it soon again opens out to a moderate width, and narrow flats extend along this upper part, along which gold-mining has been carried on for some considerable time. The lower lands outside the hills only are of any value; these have, however, been alienated, and are in the possession of private individuals. The upper part of the valley is surrounded by mountains formed of the rocks of the coal-bearing series, and it is thus a matter of importance to determine the immediate as well as the original or primary source of the gold found in this part of Doughboy Creek. From the upper part of the valley a low saddle gives access to the lower part of the Maruia Valley, and from this direction or from the Upper Buller the auriferous gravels may have come. There is, however, another source whence the gold in this valley may have been derived—namely, the conglomerates at or near the bottom of the coal-bear-ing series. This matter need not be dwelt on here, as some further reference will have to be made to it in speaking generally of the source of the gold in the Upper Buller Valley, more especially of the Matakitaki, Mangles, and Maruia Valleys. At one time 200 miners were located within the area fo this block. Block XXXl. —This extends five miles and a half along the lower part of the Glenroy Biver, and its area is 800 acres. For the last one and a half or two miles the Glenroy Biver has its course in a deep gorge excavated in granite, but on entering the Matakitaki Valley rocks of the coal-bearing series are found near its junction with the Matakitaki. Beyond the granite range the valley widens somewhat, and here the river has cut a narrow channel in conglomerate rocks and sandstone belonging to the coal-bearing series. Beyond this again the valley yet further expands, and open flat lands are found along the banks of the stream. Yet higher up the river the conglomerates of the coal-bearing series are repeated, and thence extend into the Maruia watershed. Towards the source of the river, and beyond the limits of the block, there are a variety of rocks—serpentines—belonging to the Maitai series, and Devonian breccias and slates, and micaschists. These latter may possibly be the source of part of the gold found in the valley of the Glenroy, but it is evident that the greater part has been derived from the conglomerate, in connection with the coal-bearing series, as described in the first part of this Beport. The prospecting of these conglomerates is a matter that, in the interest of mining in the Upper Buller district, should not be delayed; for it is evident that not in the Glenroy Biver alone, but that over the whole area drained by the Maruia, Matakitaki, Glenroy and the Mangles, they have been a great, if not the chief, source of gold to the recent alluviums worked for gold in the lower grounds of these valleys. It has been noted that in the Matakitaki, Glenroy, and the Mangles, where these conglomerates cease and are not found higher up the valley, there also is the finish of the coarser and richer deposits of gold; the gold found higher up the valleys being fine and by no means as abundant as where, and below where, the conglomerates begin. This is specially the case in the Mangles Valley, where the conglomerates terminate at or near the junction of Blue Duck Creek ; the coarse and richer gold deposits follow that for some distance, till the conglomerates trending away to the westward in Blue Duck Creek, the gold is less or absent towards the source of the creek. Block Ll. —This is the most northerly of the blocks of land reserved for gold-mining purposes in the Inangahua Valley. It is of irregular shape, but rudely a triangle in outline, the blunted apex of which nearly reaches the Westport-Beefton Boad, between Larry's and Landing Creeks. The boundary follows the right bank of Larry's Creek to the heights overlooking the second or main forksjof that stream. Thence the south-east boundary is part of a line between Trig. H H and Trig. G, the north-eastern trig, being the corner of the block in that direction. From thence the line runs nearly due west to where it crosses Landing Creek. It embraces an area of 9,900 acres, and has two principal streams —Landing and Coal Creeks—running through it, each of which has many tributaries that are of importance in connection with the gold-producing quality of the gravels in these or the larger streams. Little Landing Creek has been extensively worked for gold, which appears to be derived from two if not three different sources. Between Landing Creek and Coal Creek there is a high plateau or tableland over which a considerable amount of working for gold has been carried on, and over all the higher lands, where alluvial deposits are within this block, large sluicing claims might be worked with profit. The back part of the block reaches across the Cretaceo-tertiary coal-bearing belt on to the auriferous slates of carboniferous age, and within this part there is a probability of reefs being found in continuation of those found on Larry's Creek. Then there are the quartz cements at the base of the coal-bearing series, which here have not been prospected, and which should be prospected both here and elsewhere much more than has been done. In front of the coal-bearing series, that is to the westward, lies a very considerable development of older Pliocene gravels (" Old man bottom "). These rocks extend to within a quarter of a mile of the road line, and form a plateau or table-land deeply cut into by gullies or sculptured into hills of a nearly uniform height. These rocks are gold-bearing, and although within this block no claims are being worked in them, there cannot be a doubt that, with a good water supply, they could at places be made to pay for working, The Chinamen working in the bed of Little Landing Creek admitted that, perhaps, more than a colour of gold could be found in these older Pliocene gravels that there form the bottom on which the recent gravels of the creek bed rest.