PBESIDENTIAL ADDRESS — SECTION C. 125' 



To enumerate in detail all the branches of this inquiry 

 would occupy too much time at present ; but in Victoria the 

 principal requirements are — the proper study of the Silurian 

 rocks, the working-out of the sequence and recurrence of the 

 rock-layers in their anticlinal and synclinal foldings, the 

 identification of those groups in which the reefs are rich, poor, 

 or barren, as the case may be, and finally the investigation of 

 the causes of these differences. Briefly, as sketched out here, 

 this means a great field of work for a number of busy brains ; 

 but it is work which I believe would lead to great results, and,, 

 while as purelj' scientific as any other branch of natural 

 science, would m a very high degree contribute to the success 

 of mining. If liberally supported by the Governments of the 

 various colonies this work would do far more good to mining- 

 than the system of State subsidies to drooping undertakings, 

 for it would assist, while raising the intellectual status of the- 

 miner, without debilitating his spirit of enterjDrise and making 

 a beggar of him, as is too surely the case where these subsidies- 

 are given. 



Other Branches of Mining. 



Gold-mining has been so essentially the chief mineral in- 

 dustry of Victoria, while the results from other branches of 

 mining have hitherto been so small, that it is difficult to get 

 many people to believe in the payable character of any other 

 than gold-mining. Silver-, copper-, and lead-ores have only 

 been found in anything approaching workable quantity in a 

 few places, and have not so far proved payable. 



Antimony has been, and no doubt will be again, profitably 

 worked in many localities ; but of late tin-mining has given 

 signs of assuming a prominence that a few years ago was 

 wholly unanticipated. 



Stream-tin ore was found many years ago in the auriferous- 

 lead gravels of Eldorado, near Beechworth, in such quantity as 

 to render it worth saving when the ground was being worked 

 for gold : it has also been found in many other portions of the 

 colony, but rarely in profitable quantity. Lately, however,, 

 stanniferous lodes of great size and richness, with every indi- 

 cation of persistence, have been discovered in the mountainous 

 tract extending from Omeo northwards towards the Murray, 

 and it is pleasurable to state that the discovery was in a great 

 measure due to Mr. James Stirling, Assistant Geological Sur- 

 veyor, who, in directing the operations of a gold-prospecting 

 party, advised them to search for tin as well. 



The principal lodes as yet found are near Mount "Wills, a 

 mountain of granite protruding through metamorphic schists ; 

 and, from what is known of the district, it is likely — now at- 

 tention is directed to the search, and scores of active prospectors 



