PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 175 



principles in every case with sucli additions as are required to explain tlie 

 meaning of individual maps. There can, however, I think, be no doubt that 

 an explanation written expressly for each map can be made at once more easy 

 to understand and more interesting to those without special geological knowledge. 



That something further is required to render the information contained in 

 the Geological Survey Maps generally available to the public is illustrated by a 

 correspondence that took place some years ago in one of our leading provincial 

 papers with reference to the achievement of a manipulator of the hazel 

 twig in discovering water in the Triassic rocks of the south-west of Derbyshire. 

 No one seemed to realise that with the help of the Geological Survey Map 

 published forty years before and the contoured Ordnance Survey Map more 

 recently issued, it was possible for anyone who possessed a little geological 

 knowledge and common intelligence to predict within narrow limits the depths 

 at which it would be possible to find water at any point within the area under 

 consideration. 



When measures such as I have suggested have been adopted for rendering 

 the publications of the Geological Survey easily comprehensible to the general 

 public, it should be the policy of the Government to obtain for them the widest 

 circulation, so that the information they contain should be generally known, 

 a consummation not only desirable for its own sake as tending to increase the 

 general interest in geology, but because it would be an important factor in 

 developing the industries of the country. 



During the war publications containing desirable information were circulated 

 widely and gratuitously by the authorities to all public bodies concerned, and 

 there seems no reason why the information laboriously gathered by the Geological 

 Survey in the national interests and paid for out of the public funds should not 

 now receive the same treatment. All Municipalities, District Councils, public 

 libraries, colleges and schools, both secondary and elementary, should receive 

 free copies of the Geological Survey publications dealing with the area where 

 they are situated or with those immediately adjoining it. 



When a new publication is issued the same measures should be taken to 

 make it known locally as a private firm would employ ; copies should be sent 

 to the local press, which should be assisted to give an interestirig and intelli- 

 gible account of its contents, with a selection from the illustrations. There 

 should also be a standing notice in the ' Publishers' Circular ' of the Survey 

 publications, so that local booksellers may know where to apply for them. 

 I am told that at the present they are sometimes completely ignorant on the 

 subject. 



Every facility should, of course, be afforded to the public to make use of 

 the Survey publications. They should not only be on sale at the post offices in 

 the areas to which they relate, but it should also be possible to borrow folding 

 mounted copies of the maps as well as bound copies of the explanations and 

 memoirs, on making a deposit equal to their value. When they were no longer 

 required, the amount of the deposit, less a small charge for use, would be 

 repaid on their return to the same or any other post office and the production 

 of the receipt for cancellation. It would thus be possible, when traversing any 

 part of the country, to consult in succession all the Geological Survey publica- 

 tions of the districts passed through. This system would also enable the 

 permanent residents to refer to the more expensive hand-coloured maps, includ- 

 ing the 6-inch manuscript maps, at a comparatively small cost. 



The preparation and printing of the explanations of the Survey Maps, and 

 the increase in the numbers printed of other publications, would obviously 

 involve additional expenditure. This would be to some extent set off by 

 increased sales ; but even if there were a net loss on the balance, it would be 

 worth while if it enabled the fullest advantage to be taken of the expenditure 

 incurred in any event by the Survey in investigating the mineral resources of 

 the country. 



The Survey publications should be illustrated in every museum and school 

 in the districts with which they deal by small collections showing the characters 

 of the local rocks, and of the minerals and fossils that occur in them, and care 

 should be taken to see that these collections are maintained in good order and 

 properly labelled. 



