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number of men have been engaged during the year in repairing and improving this race, which is over twenty miles in length. No. 1 claim (J. Robertson, manager) : Eighteen heads of water under a vertical pressure of 650 ft. are used; the material is elevated 75ft. No. 2 claim (Charles Atkinson, manager) : Twenty-five heads of water are used under a vertical pressure of 250 ft. ; the material is elevated 50 ft. Victoria Gully Sluicing Claim, Nokomai (Selwood and Burke, owners). —The present owners purchased this property from John France. The claim is worked by hydraulic sluicing and elevating, with a poor water-supply. The ground is about 20 ft. deep and very rough. Two men employed. Waikaia. Argyle Hydraulic Sluicing Company, Winding Creek (J. Stewart, manager). —This company carries on both hydraulic sluicing and dredging at Winding Creek. The dredge is driven by water-power, the method used being, it is claimed, an improved adaptation of O'Brien's system. Surplus water is used for ground-sluicing. The company's operations are attended with success. Seven men are employed. "Winding Creek Sluicing Claim, Winding Creek (John Eamsay, mine-manager ; Alfred Reynolds, secretary, Riverton). —This property is held by the Round Hill Mining Company, and sluicing operations have been carried on during the year. The ground is deep, necessitating the overburden being stripped off before the lower portion of the deposit is elevated. Ten heads of water, under a vertical pressure of 280 ft., are available. Six men are employed. Muddy Creek Terraces, Waikaia. —Separate water-rights from the Dome Creek and mining areas on the Muddy Creek Terraces were secured by Messrs. P. Gordon and F. Hamer. In order to work to the best advantage the various rights were amalgamated, and a large company formed, with a capital of £13,000, to bring in the water from Dome Creek. The water-race has been surveyed, and tenders are being called for its construction over sixteen miles. Dredging. —Too much attention cannot be drawn to the rapid advance made by the dredging industry in this district. In 1901 the industry was|looked upon as a failure in this locality. In that year the Mystery Flat dredge started to work, and obtained good was the turning-point, and renewed attention was devoted to the field. Systematic boring on the claims was adopted, with good results. There are now seventeen dredges in the Waikaia Valley, fifteen of which are in active operation. Present indications point to the further flotation of companies and the erection of more dredges. Gore. Gore is the centre of an extensive mining district comprising Waikaka Valley, Charlton Valley, and Mataura River Valley. Owing to the absence of suitable water-supplies under pressure as required for hydraulic sluicing and elevating, this is pre-eminently a dredge-mining district. A sluicing claim was at work at the head of Charlton Valley several years ago, but the water-supply was poor. It is now proposed to cut in a race four miles in length from the Otamita Stream to convey sufficient water to carry on extensive sluicing operations. There is a large area of known auriferous ground available. An extensive deposit oi payably auriferous gravels which occurs in the forks of the Big and Little Waikaia Streams is not being worked on account of the impracticability of bringing an adequate watersupply at suitable working pressure. Two privately owned dredges are now at work on the|Mataura River, one above Gore Township several miles below. The tocal number of dredges in active operation on the Waikaka field is twenty-four. Three were dismantled during the year and not re-erected, while one was transferred to a claim on the Mataura River, near Gore. Ibbotson's dredges continue to operate successfully in the Charlton Valley. There five dredges operating in the Waimumu Valley, near Mataura; three of these are privately owned. • Round HiU. Round Hill Gold-mining Company (A. Reynolds, general manager ; F. Hart, mine-manager).— The working-paddock has assumed large proportions; operations were commenced in the valley of the Ourawera Stream two and a half years ago. Some fifty acres of sludge overlying virgin ground were sluiced and elevated to a depth of 50 ft. in all. The ancient river-bed is bared to the diorite bottom. Buried timber and stones in considerable quantities have been successfully handled by the Pelton-driven log-hauler; in fact, had it not been for the facilities afforded by this machine, it is questionable if receipts from operations would have covered expenses, as the material treated has been below average value, while large quantities of stones and buried timber were encountered. The paddock has become so extensive that Nos. 1 and 2 elevators are growing beyond the range of efficiency from the working-face. No. 3 elevator is being erected to work that part of the claim down stream in virgin ground, the lead of good wash having been proved to continue in that direction. The new penstock and main pipe-line are acting efficiently, and the new storage-dam site is being enlarged as occasion offers. The main line is some 45 chains in length; pipes reduced from 32 in. to 30 in. to 27 in. and 26 in. diameter. Twenty-two heads of water available at a vertical pressure of 300 ft. to the sludge-level, which is 50 ft. above the floor of the claim. Mr. A. Reynolds, general manager, supplies (5/4/1907) the following figures : The area taken out to half the slope is 31 acres, and the area cleaned down to about 25 acres ; the average depth of material worked is 15 yards; about 2,250,000 cubic yards of material have been passed over the gold-saving tables, with a return of 5,541 oz., valued at £22,164, being at the rate of 2 - 363 d. per cubic yard. The cost of mining was Ifd. per cubic yard, including depreciation, &c, leaving a profit of 0 - 61 ci per cubic yard worked.