148 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN INSTITUTE. _ [VOL. XI 
5. Generally to advise the Imperial Government on all questions 
bearing on the mining and metallurgical industries. To perform: this 
function efficiently, it is essential that complete information should be 
available and also that the industries concerned should be consulted 
through their respective organisations. 
The institutions to which I have referred have long felt the neces- 
sity for such a Department as that proposed but since the outbreak of 
war and the consequent revelation of the dangerous position into which 
these vital Imperial interests had been allowed to drift, the necessity 
has been demonstrated over and over again. It is not too much to 
assert that if a properly organised and efficiently conducted Depart- 
ment of Mines and Metals had been established in Great Britain much 
valuable time, many lives and vast sums of money would have been 
saved to the Empire in the course of the war. 
DEPARTMENTAL CO-OPERATION. 
It is a matter of common knowledge that in the activities of the 
permanent departments of the Governments of the different states con- 
stituting the British Empire there is not the active co-operation that 
should prevail if efficient progress is to be secured. Perhaps I may be 
permitted to cite an example or two of a defect of this kind which was 
recently brought to my attention. The Geological Survey of Great 
Britain as you all know, has a magnificent record to its credit. Its 
operations in the British Isles have been most complete and its reports 
are most voluminous and very exhaustive. It has happened, however, 
that after its reports have been presented to Parliament they have 
been carefully filed away and no special attempt has been made to 
bring their contents in a definite, particularised, and effectively useful 
manner before the industrial organisations of the country. When the 
War broke out it happened that one of the largest refining and reduction 
works in England found their supplies of a particular flux required by 
them in the treatment of their ores entirely cut off. The firm had been 
accustomed to import the flux from mines under the control of one of 
the Central Powers. A representative of the Institution of Mining and 
Metallurgy happening to call on this firm learned of their dilemma, 
and to the chagrin of its members pointed out that the Geological 
Reports mentioned above contained a detailed account of large deposits 
of this particular flux situated in England within 10 miles of their works. 
It is needless to tell you that in a very short time a light railway was 
constructed between the deposits and the works and the firm is 
now rejoiced to find that it can carry on its operations without let or 
hindrance and at a greatly reduced cost. 
