THE DEVELOPMENT OF MINING IN AUSTRALASIA. 



223 



2.— THE DEVELOPMENT OF MINING IN 

 AUSTRALASIA. 



By S. Herbert Cox, F.C.S., F.G.S., Lecturer on Geology, 

 Minerology, and Mining, Sydney Technical College. 



Since the early days, when the Australasian Colonies were first 

 visited by Europeans, mining has made such phenomenal strides 

 that I need offer no apology to the members of the Association 

 for attempting to bring under their notice the development of 

 that ai-t in our adopted country. 



Of late years the several Parliaments have voted sums of money 

 for the assistance of pi^ospectors ; but it must be borne in mind 

 that although coal was worked by the Government in very early 

 times, convict labour being employed, all the earlier discoveries 

 of gold were hushed up, and the enormous returns which have 

 since been obtained were practically forced upon the people, and 

 were not due, in any way, to the assistance, or even encourage- 

 ment of the Government. Notwithstanding these discouraging 

 influences, however, mining has by degrees forged ahead, and we 

 now find that the value of minerals raised in all the colonies 

 for the year 1886, reaches a total of £9,147,620, made up as 

 follows : — 



Table showing: value of Minerals raised from Mines during 1886. 



A glance at these figures will show us at once the enormous 

 strides which have been made since 1829, in which year 780 tons 

 of coal were raised in the colony of New South Wales, an output 

 which can now be obtained in one day from several of the going 

 collieries, and since the output of the metals has in many cases 

 increased in like proportion, it is worth tracing the course of this 

 development in order to obtain a true conception of the progress 

 of mining in the colonies. 



To avoid prolixity in my paper I propose to submit these data 

 to the Association in a tabular form and to devote only a few 

 lines to the description of the tables. 



