Our Coalfields: Present and Futwre Prospects. 553 
of our shortcomings in the past and points the way to reform in the 
future. 
He says: “The effects of the War, in increasing the demand for 
certain minerals of economic value, have led to many inquiries as to 
the resources in Britain of some materials for the supply of which 
dependence has been placed upon imports, and have raised the 
question whether further exploitation and improvements in method 
of preparation of those minerals would now be justified.” : 
Valuable mineral deposits in‘old workings, the delimitation of still 
unworked ground, old waste-products now of great value under 
changed conditions of demand, are vital matters dealt with in these 
volumes. In a pregnant passage the Director says: ‘‘It has become 
apparent also that some of our home products would be at least equal 
to material we have been importing, provided that they could receive 
equally careful preparation for the market, and that with improved 
treatment and greater facilities for transport, they would be fit to 
compete with some of the foreign materials.” 
In the volume on Barytes and Witherite, it is stated that ‘ apart 
from the very highest qualities, there is no scarcity of barytes in 
Great Britain, but that notwithstanding that fact more than half 
the amount used in this country has been imported, and that 
34 per cent of the amount used came from Germany”. Owing to 
fineness of grinding and low freights, the imports of this mineral 
from Germany have increased at a bigger rate than our own output,. 
a state of things that surely will never recur. .. . 
The Geological Survey and the Imperial Institute. 
I desire here to refer to the Research Department of the Imperial 
Institute at South Kensington. From the Scientific and Technical 
Research Department reports and papers appear from time to time 
on the mineral resources of Britain and the Colonies. Thus, ‘‘ The 
Occurrence and Utilization of Tungsten Ores” appeared in 1909, 
and similar reports on the ores of chromium, titanium, zinc, etc., 
and on the coal and iron resources of the British Crown Colonies 
and Protectorates have been published. These reports are all 
unsigned, although presumably written by competent persons. 
Such investigations, although primarily dealing with the Colonies, 
necessarily overlap to some extent similar work undertaken by 
the Geological Survey in this country. The point, however, 
I wish to make is that the work, both for Britain and the Crown 
Colonies and Protectorates in so far as it relates to prospecting, 
mapping, and reporting on mineral resources, could be done more 
effectively by the staff of the Geological Survey. There is no need 
to duplicate such a staff in the-Government service. Men of the 
standing of our Government surveyors, speciaily 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 India, they have 
their own Geological Surveys and may be relied upon to develop 
their own mineral wealth. .. . 
