president's address — SECTION B. 81 



therefore greatly indebted to those enterprising workers who have 

 persevered with the flotation process up to its present successful 

 condition. 



The great amount of litigation which has recently been taking 

 place on account of supposed infringement of patent rights has had 

 one good result in occasioning exhaustive investigations into the 

 mechanism of the process. Whatever the final result of the present 

 appeal on the question of infringement of patent rights, the founders 

 of the process have the personal satisfaction of giving a new process 

 to the world, which will add materially to the mineral v/ealth of many 

 countries. 



The mineral output in Australia goes up slowly if at all. The 

 efficiency of Australian raining engineers and metallurgists is recognised 

 by the demand for these men from other parts of the world, and so 

 fault is not to be found there. There if. probably p.lso abundant mineral 

 wealth still unearthed in Australia, but there has not been suflScient 

 new ground opened up lately to add to our ore in sight. The recent 

 good seasons in pastoral industries have probably been against mineral 

 prospecting, but with a return of more prospecting it is to be hoped 

 that fresh works may be started to compensate for the gradual falling 

 grade of ore which many companies have had to face. . 



The one mineral which increases steadily and which is really the 

 backbone of the mineral industry is coal. 



Taking New South Wales alone, which produces the chief portion 

 of Australian coal, Mr. Pittman (1912) estimates that in New South 

 Wales there are probably about 115,346,880,000 tons of coal in the 

 permo-carboniferous coal measures within a depth of 4,000 feet. The 

 average thickness of workable coal is taken as 10 feet, which certainly 

 does not seem an over-estimate. 



The possession of this great amount of wealth practically ensures 

 the prosperity of the Commonwealth for many yea^s to come. 



While coal is our principal fuel, the advantages of oil fuel over 

 coal on steam-ships is now fully recognised. It is satisfactory to note 

 that the Commonwealth Government encourages the mineral oil 

 industry by a bounty on kerosene and wax. 



There are two oil companies at work in New South Wales, and 

 another company at work in Tasmania. 



So far no oil has been obtained from wells, the whole supply coming 

 from the distillation of oil shale. The total Australian output of oil 

 is at present a very small output when contrasted with countries like 

 U.S.A. or Russia, which have natural oil wells, but the deposits of the 

 oil shale already located are considerable, and the yield of oil usually 

 high when compared with the Scotch shales at present being worked. 

 The yield of oil is so high, indeed, that it is not possible to report some 

 of it in the usual manner, as it softens so quickly. It is an important 



