These contain more impurities than any other, the loss in smelting being from 4 to 7 per cent. The Nokomai gold is waterworn and nuggetty, and this also, judging from a few ounces which were assayed for the prospectors, is comparatively inferior.

The following table (for the contents of which, with the exception of the item relating to Moeraki, I am indebted to the courtesy of the Manager of the Bank of New South Wales) furnishes the results of actual assays:—

The methods adopted for extracting the gold from the soil are of the simplest description, cradles, long toms, and ground sluices being the machines ordinarily employed. Owing to the abundance of water, sluicing is the favorite system. Puddling-mills have been tried, but they do not answer so well as the sluice. These mills, the idea of which was originally derived from the clay-mill of the brickmaker, were adopted on the Australian Gold-fields, because of the facilities which they afford for disintegrating the tough clays, intermixed with which gold is usually found in that country. In Otago the wash-dirt is of a sandy, gravelly character with an almost total absence of argillaceous earths. Consequently, the mills become quickly silted up, and the miners derive very little assistance from the process. In some districts, as at Gabriel’s and Waipori, hill sluicing is resorted to. This is effected by conducting a stream of water to the brow of the hill which is to be operated upon. The soil is then washed bodily away to the bed rock, the gold being saved in sluices underneath.

Some of the channels, or “races,” as they are technically termed, used for sluicing operations are extensive and costly works, upon the construction of which much time and labour have been expended. Through these water is conducted from high levels around and over, and sometimes through, the mountain ranges; frequently from a point several miles distant, to the scene of operations.

In the gullies and flats the workings are shallow, seldom exceeding 20 feet. The earth is loose, gravelly, and easily removed; but this peculiarity renders “driving” or tunnelling dangerous, and the usual practice is to strip the ground throughout.

Hill sinking varies from 5 to 50 feet, and the soil being somewhat firmer, the hills are often worked by adits, driven from the sloping surface.

Beer werviving, as in the Clutha River, are well understood and practised in California, although quite unknown in Australia. The process is very simple. The auriferous sands, collected from the rocks, are first washed in an ordinary cradle, when the lighter particles float off leaving a residuum of highly magnetic iron sand and gold. The iron is most effectually removed by a magnet, and the gold is then finally “panned off,” i.e., washed until perfectly clean in a tin pan.

Present population.—Owing to the recent discoveries, the mining population is now rapidly on the increase. It is estimated that there are not less than 10,000 miners in Otago at the present time. Of these there are about 1500 on the various districts of the Tuapeka Gold-field; 3000 at the Dunstan; 2500 at the Nokomai; 2000 are supposed to be on the way to the various Gold-fields; and the remainder, including about 500 on the Highlay diggings, are distributed over the Province beyond the boundaries of the proclaimed diggings.

The number of persons holding Business Licenses on the Gold-fields is about 1000, and there are 60 Licensed dealers in Spirituous liquors. Their employés may be set down at 1500.

I have no means of forming even an approximate estimate of the female and infant population. In December, 1861, there were only 148 females of all ages on the Gold-fields. A considerable improvement has since taken place in this respect, and continues to progress favorably; but their numbers are still very disproportionate to that of the adult male population.

The condition of the miners is very favorable. Taken as a class, a more respectable body of men never followed the vocation of gold mining. Orderly and peaceable in their habits and general conduct, crime is rare amongst them, and although the police-force on the gold-fields is necessarily small, life and property are safer in the tented gullies of Otago than in many of the cities of civilised Europe. From the ruffianism which pervades some other colonies, this Province is now almost free—a result mainly attributable to the efficiency and excellent conduct of the Otago police-force; somewhat also, perhaps, to the peculiarities of the country, which affords but slight facilities for concealment or escape to the hunted desperado.