'J98 PKOCEBDINGS of SECTIO]!^ c. 



although the yield of gold up to the end of 1893 constituted about 

 99 '5 per cent, of the total production of the colony from its inception. 



QuEEKSLAND. — The period antecedent to your former meeting in 

 Queensland was fully dealt with during the sittings on that occasion, 

 so that a bare summaiy of results is sufficient here. The great gold 

 fields of the present day had all been then discovered, Gyinpie, 

 Charters Towers, and Moimt Morgan were in full swing, and the 

 Palmer was dying off from its unparalleled alluvial yield — unparalleled 

 as far as Queensland is concerned ; and so fully was the thirst for gold 

 occupying the attention of the people that all other metallic minerals 

 were considered a nuisance. Hence the statement quoted from a 

 report of one of the Northern Wardens, who said, " Copper, antimony, 

 lead, and tin all exist in a large area of these fields, but for a long 

 time to come they will be regarded as depreciating rather than 

 improving the importance of the distj-ict. But, now, well it is not 

 always safe to prophesy, for copper alone yielded more than half the 

 production of gold in Queensland during the year 1907. But we 

 anticipate, Queensland had then produced, that is, up to the close 

 of 1893, minerals to the value of over forty-one and a half millions 

 sterling, of which gold contributed £32,365,945, or about 78 per cent, 

 of the whole; copper, two millions; tin, four millions; coal, one and a 

 half millions; silver and lead, antimony, bismuth, zinc, manganese, 

 cobalt, mercury, wolfram, and other minor metallic minerals, with 

 opal and gems, yielded various amounts aggregating ,i:l,439,032. So 

 that Queensland possesses nearly all the metallic minerals and most 

 of the earthy, including graphite, asbestos, mica, baryta, arsenic, 

 gypsum, slates, limestones, granites, marble, and other ornamental 

 stones. Fluor spar, magnesia, salt, valuable fire clays, bauxite, and 

 kaolin, which had already mafle their presence known in Queensland, 

 gave a guarantee tliat whatever fate might befall the agricultural, 

 pastoral, or mamifacturing industries, mining for either metalliferous 

 or earthy minerals in Queensland had a grand future before it. 



South Australia. — With the exception of copper. South Australia 

 has never been conspicuous in the production of minerals. This colony 

 liad at the time of your last meeting in Queensland produced more 

 than twenty millions sterling worth of copper; gold to the amount of 

 i:301,322, silver £167,123, and tin to the value of £1,487, making a 

 total production of £21,114,736. It possesses iron, bismuth, zinc, 

 antimony, and some of the minor metallic and earthy minerals. But 

 did not, at the close of 1893, promise to shortly again become a pro- 

 minent mining colony or State. The Northern Territory had then 

 produced gold to the value of over a million pounds sterling — viz., 

 £1,043,720. 



West Australia. — ^At the time of your last meeting in Bris- 

 bane the Western colony had not made its mark as a producer of 

 minerals, although they had been proved fifty years previous to that 

 meeting, and both lead and copper were worked there in 1843. At tlio 

 close of 1893 the production of gold had amounted to £941,325, from 

 its discoveiy in 1851, almost siimdtaneously with that in New South 

 Wales and Victoria, and it is a remarkable coincidence that gold was 

 discovered at Gympie duiing the same year, but was not considered 

 sufficiently important until Is^ash's subsequent discovery in 1867. The 

 other metallic productions consisted of silver and its accompaniments 



