Mining and Minerals.

The District of Westland contains the greatest area of alluvial auriferous ground on the West Coast. In the Mines Report of 1896 the number of miners employed was given as 2,365, and the amount of gold produced as 49,893 oz., valued at £199,626.

All the Westland rivers carry more or less gold, but the two great golden rivers are the Arahura and Waiho, the bars and ripples in which appear to be replenished with fresh deposits of gold after each flood. Standing on the summit of Mount Turiwhate, the ancient beds of the Arahura can be easily traced northward to the Kumara and southward to the Rimu diggings. Similarly the Waiho has, in olden times, flowed both northward down the course of the Okarito River and southward to the Omoeroa River, the lateral terraces in both directions being well defined and gold-bearing.

There are three main gold-bearing deposits in Westland: the first, which may be called riverine leads, run generally westward. These are ancient river-beds, often lying at considerable elevations, of which the bulk has been washed away, leaving detached portions, as at Kumara and Rimu; the second are beach leads, both those along the present coast-line, and others running parallel thereto at distances varying from one-quarter to four miles inland, and at levels from a few feet below to a couple of hundred feet above sea-level; the third are extensive masses of gravel, &c., occurring in large isolated patches, as at Big Dam Hill, Humphrey's Gully, and Bald Hill, north of the Haast. These drifts have all one notable peculiarity, viz., that they invariably coat the seaward faces of the hills, and neither gold nor drift is to be found on the inland slopes. Gold-bearing fans from Mount Greenland have been found at different levels on Ross Flat, having probably been deposited in deep water by sucessive land-slides.

Hydraulic sluicing on a large scale is successfully carried on in various portions of the northern district, and is rapidly being extended to many other localities. Kanieri Lake is being re-utilised, and an abundant quantity of water is now available for the sluicers in the Kanieri Valley. The extension, now proposed, of that race to Back Creek would develop a very large field. The tapping of the Arahura River will, when completed, enable the miners at Blue Spur to obtain an unfailing supply of water, and command a large area of auriferous country, at present unworkable from want of water at a sufficient altitude. Numerous and costly experiments have been made with dredges of different types in the endeavour to work economically the gold-bearing sands which lie along the sea-beaches for a distance of over 140 miles; but none have proved a success as yet. A considerable number of miners (black-sanders) work on some of these beaches, and seem to make a fair living, many of them having been so employed in one neighbourhood for over twenty years.

Gold-bearing quartz has been found throughout the district, the most promising finds being at Taipo Range, Browning's Pass, and Cedar Creek, where extensive and costly prospecting is now in progress. Silver ores, associated with gold, have also been found, notably at Rangitoto, where a systematic and expensive search is being continued for the main lode. Copper lodes have also been discovered throughout the country, the finest outcrop being on the western slopes of the Matakitakinge, with good seams and beds of coal and limestone adjacent.