296 PKOCEEDHS'GS OF SECTION C. 



Besides the actual gold taken away, the country is said to be 

 " out " a large sum on account of such expenditure as large salaries 

 to ovei^aid officials, cost of public buildings, courthouse^, schools, 

 governor's residence, post office, police barracks, also a park — all in 

 Dawson town, to say nothing of frauds in making payments every- 

 where; so that the final result of the mining and all transactions 

 connected therewith has been a serious deficit, apart from the loss of 

 the srold itself. 



8.— THE PROGRESS OF MINING AND GEOLOGY IN THE COMMON- 

 WEALTH OF AUSTRALIA AND THE DOMINION OF NEW 

 ZEALAND. 



By WILLIAM FRTAR, late Ins-pector of Mines, Queensland. 



On a former occasion when the colony of Queensland was 

 honoured with the assemblage of the scientists of the various British 

 States of Australasia, the writer had the privilege of placing before 

 the Geological Section some of the results of their labours in Queens- 

 land up to that time, now fourteen years ago. He would now 

 endeavour to formulate a more general and c.on)prehensive statement 

 of the same nature, not with the detail with which the results in one 

 State can be dealt, nor with the exclusion of all mention of the pro- 

 gress which has been made in the other States, which with Queensland 

 have since become united as the Commonwealth of Australia, together 

 with the former colony of New Zealand, whicli has also been accorded 

 a higher title. 



As the results of geological research in the north-eastern State 

 were then given, they, at any rate, need not at present be given with 

 any detail previous to that time, nor need those of the other States 

 be dealt with minutely, as they have now become matters of history, 

 although the general results may be of interest to those who are too 

 deeply engrossed with the scientific details to have time or inclination 

 to devote to the statistical results. And yet the expansion and 

 extension of the mining indutry, having been such as to attract the 

 attention of the mining and industrial world to a veiy considerable 

 extent, to omit all reference to it on an occasion like the present 

 would appear to be a dereliction of duty which would not be creditable 

 to the members who have had any experience in statistical work, or 

 rather on the part of those who have no leaning towards abstract 

 science, no ability to discover and lay bare the secrets of Nature, but 

 may put such together by entering into the labours of other men. 



This, then, is the extent to which the present paper may have 

 any claim to belong to a scientific subject, but, as Dr. Jack has dealt 

 with the presence of minerals on the Pacific Coast, and Mr. Knibbs 

 has shown the value of statistics, no further apology is needed for the 

 intrusion. 



New South Wales. — It need scarcely be said that the parent 

 State or Mother Colony enjoys the distinction of having been the first 

 in the contribution of minerals to the productions of the great Aus- 

 tralian continent. Productions found in an early period of its history, 



