83

C—3

Bolling Biver and Nuggety Creek. 11 Five or six men are now working here, but when inducement offers they leave for road-making. Provisions were carried out with a view to prospecting in the vicinity of the Crow Biver, but owing to continued rain no work was done. Baton Biver. This river is gradually being deserted; only three men are now at work, and their returns are said to be small. Sherry Biver. One party consisting of two men are working on private property, and have lately brought up a deeper tail-race to enable them to bottom ground that has hitherto been too deep for them. They are reported to be making fair wages. Croixelles. Chrome. A wire tramway has been erected at the works here to facilitate shipment and I hear results are proving satisfactory. I have, &c, Wilson Heaps, Warden. The Under-Secretary, Mines Department, Wellington.

Mr. Warden Hawkins to the Under-Secretary for Mines, Wellington. Sir, — Warden's Office, Greymouth, 10th June, 1901. I have the honour to forward herewith statistical returns with detailed reports from the several districts of my Courts of Greymouth, Ahaura, Beefton, Lyell, Westport, and Charleston. I am indebted for these detailed reports to the painstaking assistance of the Clerks of the several Courts, and to secretaries of companies, mining agents, and others for much information and I have to express my thanks to all for the service rendered. The department has sustained the loss of a most experienced and excellent servant in the death of Mr. Lucas, who was for over thirty years Clerk of the Magistrate's and Warden's Court at Reefton. I have to report that the district has been worked in the last twelve months without any difficulty, and, I think I may say, with no inconvenience to suitors. I have, I think, in every case except two, been able to open my Courts at every place at the precise hour and day appointed. Delays of a day have twice occurred at Wesport, on both occasions owing to the state of the sea and flood in the river. The new facilities given by the Railway Department for a through service between Greymouth and Westport on Tuesdays and Fridays will not yield the full advantage until the Inangahua and Buller Bivers are bridged. The former will, I conclude, be bridged by next year. As to the latter, it is a matter for regret that the Government should have been induced to enter on the costly and tedious expedient of a loop-line road, which still leaves the always inconvenient and frequently dangerous punt connection, for which the Government and the public are paying several hundred pounds a year. This obsolete form of river-passage is the more to be regretted as an excellent site for a bridge exists a little above the Ferry, at which the river is conveniently contracted. While the reef-mining and sluicing industries are making fair progress, the chief development in my district is in the dredging enterprise. The following tables show the number of prospecting and special claims granted and the number of special claims cancelled and surrendered during the nine months ended the 31st December, 1900. Nearly the whole of the prospecting licenses, except a few of those at Beefton for reef-mining, and at Charleston and Westport and Ahaura for sluicing, are for dredging purposes. It must, however, be remembered that an appreciable number of these prospecting licenses are renewals of those granted up to the 31st March, 1900. Beturn of Prospecting Licenses granted to 31st December, 1900. Number granted. Area granted. Acres. Greymouth ... ... ... ... 172 14,724 Ahaura ... ... ... ... ... 331 26,980 Beefton ... ... ... ... ... 82 5,518 Westport ... ... ... ... ... 95 6,088 Charleston ... ... ... ... 5 420 Lyell ... ... ... ... ... 47 2,618 Total ... ... ... ... 732 56,348 Beturn of Special Claims granted to 31st December, 1900. Number granted. Area granted. Acres. Greymouth ... ... ... ... ... 28 1,871 Ahaura ... ... ... ... ... 80 4,744 Beefton ... ... ... ... ... 12 599 Westport ... ... ... ... ... 36 1,810 Charleston ... ... ... ... ... 8 172 Lyell 27 396 Total ... ... ... ... 191 9,592