TIN MINING IN PERAK. 17 
These views may possibly be considered pessimistic by those who 
look on the rapid advance that mining has made in the past as an 
evidence of the capacity of the State to continue to progress in the same 
ratio in the future. But, as the tin-ore in the alluvium is a definite 
quantity, which is decreasing in direct proportion to the amount of 
mining carried on, it is obvious that the more rapidly the ore is dug up, 
the sooner it will be exhausted. 
The prolongation of the present prosperity of Perak undoubtedly 
depends, in a great measure, on the future management of the mines. 
The better these are controlled and worked, the greater will be the 
aggregate output of tin, and, conversely, the worse they are worked the 
less will be raised. It is considered by many that it is a matter of no 
great moment whether the land is worked over well or ill in the first 
instance, and this is in a measure correct when shallow land is in 
question, but it is quite a different thing when the land is deep. The 
difficulties and expenses of opening up small pieces of deep land, sur- 
rounded by ground that has been worked, are so great as to be absolutely 
prohibitive. 
The two following diagrams show graphically the facts given 
in the preceding tables. In Plate 4, the line A, representing the 
district of Kuala Kangsar, attains its maximum in 1886. The Kinta line 
B has not yet reached its highest point. It crossed the Larut line C in 
1889. The latter district touched its highest point in 1884, and is now 
steadily declining. The line D, representing the annual export of the 
whole State, rises until 1884, and then falls in the next year in sympathy 
with Larut, but recovers again in 1886, owing to the increased export of 
Kinta and Kuala Kangsar. From then to the end of 1892 the rise is 
maintained by the increasing export of Kinta, as the other districts show 
decreases. The thick line E represents the mean annual export for this 
period of nineteen years, which is, in figures, 140,5834 pikuls or 8,9513 
tons. 
The diagram, Plate 5, represents the total output of tin on the 
left-hand side; next, the comparative output from Larut; then Kinta, 
and, on the right-hand side, that of all the other tin-producing districts 
massed together. Speaking roughly, Larut has produced nearly nine- 
sixteenths and Kinta six-sixteenths of the total, while all the other 
districts have produced the remainder—z.e., a little over one-sixteenth. 
