178 DISTRIBUTION OF BEDDED LEADS 



large fields, situated on regular domes and not too much 

 affected by faults, which could not be worked as one property, 

 from one, two or at the most three central shafts, far better than 

 by the present metliods. 



(4) Much more attention should be paid to deep working- 

 on single leads or belts, on the slope. This is not to be taken 

 as indicating hostility to the best large scale method — vertical 

 sinking and cross-cutting ; but it is to bring out the fact that 

 vertical sinking on an apex is not the only successful method, 

 nor always the most desirable one. 



(5) Boring and sinking on an apex should be used wherever 

 the shape of the property and the structui-e warrant. It is un- 

 doubtedly the ideal way to initiate a large mining policy on a 

 property capable of sustaining it. In this connection one 

 thinks, of course, of the Government aid problem. It is to be 

 said that conditions where the only case yet on record was 

 attempted are not normal. The district, as has been mentioned 

 earlier, is quite like Bendigo in certain ways ; but it is not a 

 distinct dome, and this experiment should be tried upon a true 

 dome before declaration is made upon its feasibility. There are 

 few districts iii which it would be advisable to make the trial 

 for purely experimental purposes ; but there are some, and one 

 of these should be chosen next. Those who realize the actual 

 conditions in the field should have just as much faith as ever 

 in the method, and in its ultimate success. 



(6) Our ores are of so low grade on the average that large 

 scale operations will be necessarj^ to make them pay for 

 permanent investments. The industry is gradually being taken 

 out of the realm of pure speculation, where it has been for long, 

 and placed in that of legitimate business. To do this properly 

 requires, for one thing, large reserves of proved ore, which an 

 extremely small number of mines have at the present time. 



