MINING AND GEOLOGY IN AUSTRALASIA. 301 



It is necessaiy to remark that in sundiy details discrepancies 

 may be discovered. The gold was valued at arbitrary rates in the 

 different colonies in the early days; some included earthy minerals m 

 the mining statistics, and others did not, except as to coal and its 

 kindred shale, and the gems and precious stones ; and some have first 

 omitted and then included them, but the results given may be taken 

 as a very close approximation to the actual production. 



The period from the close of 1893 to that of 1900 will now be 

 taken, with as little detail as possible. Coal and its kindred shale, 

 the principal production of the parent colony, continued to increase, 

 although the price may not always have been satisfactoiy. The gold 

 of Victoria and the copper of South Australia fell off, but the produc- 

 tion in all the other colonies increased largely, and other metallic 

 minerals, as well as valuable non-metallic constituents of the crust of 

 the earth, were pressed into the use and service of the human race, 

 until there is scarcely a mineral known in the markets of the world 

 or in the domain of science that is not found in the mines of the 

 Commonwealth or of the Dominion. New Zealand had been favoured 

 with a very valuable alluvial deposit of gold, which was unearthed 

 chiefly between 1862 and 1880, but notwithstanding all the easily 

 acquired wealth of the alluvium of Victoria, New South Wales, and 

 New Zealand (which unfortunately was only of a transient nature), 

 it is now found that the more prosaic and permanent form of mining, 

 and that largely for the so-called useful metals, as distinguishing them 

 from more ornamental or precious metals, is likely to enrich the 

 southern hemisphere to a greater extent than has been done by the 

 bountiful provision of Nature in the alluvial deposits above-mentioned. 



The greatest production ever attained was about 13i millions 

 sterling, including the copper of South Australia and the gold, coal, 

 and other products of New South Wales. Queensland was then a part 

 of New South Wales, West Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand 

 were not producers. The production of minerals in 1893 exceeded 

 the above amount, which was largely due to the increasing output of 

 lead and silver, and coal, tin, copper, antimony, and other of the 

 useful metals. 



We cannot but regret the exhaustion of the alluvial deposits, nor 

 can we say that Nature has ceased to operate, but a thousand years 

 are but as one day in that i-espect, and we must take up the work as 

 we find it. The geologist and miner step in and follow the lead which 

 Nature has given them, and hence not only a supply of the precious 

 metal is kept up, but others are discoverecl, and utilised in a similar 

 manner, until, as has been indicated, the last year of the period in 

 point of time is the first in point of production, and only half of it due 

 to the production of the precious metal, gold. The proportion 

 furnished by each colony has been given, but a great change had taken 

 place, and during the year 1893 the mother colony supplied 39 per 

 cent, of the total output, Victoria 19"63, Queensland 18'9, South 

 Australia I'TS, Tasmania 4:"5, West Australia 3'14, and New 

 Zealand 13-05. 



The kauri gum of New Zealand is, and has been, an important 

 factor in keeping up the output of the Dominion : there is reason to 

 fear, however, that it will prove in one respect too much like alluvial 



