382 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 



effectively by the staff of the Geological Survey. There is uo need to duplicate 

 such a staff in the Government service. Men of the standing of our Govern- 

 ment surveyors, specially trained on the economic side, who are at present 

 investigating our home mineral resources, are admirably fitted to do similar 

 work in the Crown Colonies. As for the self-governing Dominions and Indda, 

 they have their own Geological Surveys and may be relied upon to develop 

 their own mineral wealth. 



We are told in the Bulletin of the Imperial Institute ' that ' Mineral surveys. 

 under the supervision of the Director of the Imperial Institute, and conducted 

 by surveyors selected by him, are in progress in several countries' — Ceylon, 

 Northern Nigeria, Southern Nigeria, Nyasaland — and reports thereon arc 

 published from time to time. Should not such Surveys be undertaken by the 

 highly trained staff and the tried organisation of the Geological Survey ? 



So far as I am aware, there is not even an official connection between the 

 Imperial Institute and the Geological Survey ; and it is to be regretted that 

 in the recent Act of Parliament whereby the management of the Institute is 

 definitely transferred to the Colonial Office, and which provides for the appoint- 

 ment of an Executive Council of twenty-two members to supersede the present 

 Advisory Committee, no provision is made for the co-operation of the Geological 

 Survey in the geological and mineralogical side of the Institute's work. And 

 may I say, in passing, that I think it is also a grievous mistake to develop a 

 Research Department at the Institute without making some attempt to colla- 

 borate with the neighbouring Imperial College of Science and Technology, 

 which, with its fine equipment and expert staff of researchers and teachers, 

 should constitute a real Imperial College of Science and Research, in fact a.s 

 in name ? 



But, these matters apart, it will be recognised on all hands that an ample 

 field remains open for the energy and enterprise of the Imperial Institute as a 

 great central Clearing House of scientific and technological knowledge for the 

 whole Empire, and especially for bringing the results of scientific investigation 

 into touch with the main streams of industry and commerce. For my own part, 

 I believe that the Imperial Institute, without trespassing iipon the legitimate 

 duties and functions of the Geological Survey, could and ought to perform most 

 of the functions which Sir Robert Hadfield recently referred to ' when he 

 suggested the creation of a new ' Central Imperial Bureau.' 



The Devdopmcnt of Concealed Coalfields. 



I pass on to consider what is, or should be, another phase of the work of 

 our National Survey, namely, the discovery and development of concealed 

 coalfields. 



The Royal Coal Commissions of 1866 and 1901, and frequent addresses and 

 reports by leading geologists in recent years upon the extension of our coal- 

 fields under newer rocks, bear witness to the sovereign importance of this 

 branch of economic geology. One after the other the coalfields are being re- 

 mapped by the Geological Survey, and we confidently expect the work to 

 continue. But as the known coalfields become opened up and gradually 

 exhausted, the question of the survey and development of concealed coalfields 

 becomes ever more pressing and vital to our position as a great industrial nation. 



In the Yorkshire, Nottingham, and Derby Coalfield the rapid extension of 

 workings eastward under the Permian and Triassic cover during recent year.s 

 has been remarkable ; and although the estimates of its buried Coal Measures 

 adopted by the Commission of 1901, at that time thought conservative, have 

 since come to be regarded as too liberal, we may still rely upon a buried field 

 of workable coals larger in area than the exposed Coal ]\Ieasure ground of tliis 

 great coalfield, so that the whole combined field will prove the richest in our 

 islands. 



The Kent Coalfield has made a peculiar appeal to popular imagination, 



^ January-March 1916, p. v. 



■* Inaugural Meeting of the Ferrous Section of the Metallurgical Committee 

 of the Advisory Council for Scientific Research (Xafine, 'May 26, 1916). 



