GEOLOGICAL AND MINING SECTION. 



241 



2. Your Committee have obtained iufonnatioxi relating to the 

 mineral and metallurgical pi-oducta of the United Kingdom of Great 

 Britain and Ireland from the annual reports prepared by Her 

 Majesty'n Inspectors of Mines, and to the same in the United States 

 from returns compiled by the " Division of Mining Statistics " of the 

 United Stateb Geological Survey. 



From one of the first-mentioned reports a good deal of information 

 has been obtained concerning the trade between the United Kingdom 

 and her colonies, and also the production of the principal colonies. 



The data for the tables illustrating the trade between the Dominion 

 and the United Kingdom has been obtained from our Trade and 

 Navigation Returns, and the trade with the United States from the 

 same source, and also from the Commerce and Navigation Returns 

 of the United States. 



While these latter tables have been made up to the year 1886, 

 though it is feared more or less imperfectly owing to varying and 

 incorrect returns, much of the trade of Great Britain, both with her 

 colonies and the rest of the world, is from the returns of the year 

 1883, which was the only report available to your Committee until 

 quite recently, when the returns for 1884 and 1885 were received ; 

 but it is found that in the aggregate the variation between the re- 

 turns for the years 1883 and 18^6 is so small, and the Avork of sifting 

 out the special returns for the colonies (which ai-e not kept separate) 

 so laborious, that it was thought the returns above mentioned would 

 serve every requisite on this occasion. For example, the general 

 summary of the mineral product of the United Kingdom for 1883, 

 was about fifty-six million pounds sterling, for 1884 about .sixty -one 

 million pounds sterling, and for 1885 about fifty-eight million 

 pounds sterling. 



3. The tables accompanying this report reveal to us at the first 

 glance the small mineral production of Canada, not only in contrast 

 to the United Kingdom, and to our neighbor the United States, but 

 as compared with the other leading colonies. 



Taking the figures collected by Her Majesty's Inspectors of Mines 

 for 1884 we have for — 



African Colonies $15,905,181 



Asiatic (including India) 5,532,089 



Australasia .- . 47,885,069 



British North America 6,108,995 



