THE rRESIDENX'a ADDKESS. 123 



contributed no less than 9,400 tons (or 23-33 per cent.) a very large 

 proportion, considering what vast regions of mineral deposits are 

 now opened up to mining enterprise. Dame Nature seems to 

 have been — fortunately for us — more niggardly of her gifts in 

 foreign parts as regards this metal than any other. If we take 

 the metal which of old days was always linked with tin in this 

 county, I mean Copper, in the old Cornish toast of " Fish, Tin, 

 and Copper," how different is the state of supply with regard 

 to that useful metal. I have here in my hand two tables, 

 which have been kindty arranged for me, from Messrs. Merton 

 & Co.'s tables and other sources. The 1st is the copper 

 productions of the principal countries from 1871 to 1883 

 inclusive, thus extending over thirteen years. The 2nd shews 

 the quantity of ore, with the contents in fine copper, which has 

 been .sold in Cornwall and Wales from 30th June, 1862, to 30th 

 June, 1883, inclusive, thus over a period of 21 years. Now I 

 will not wearj' you with quoting largely from these tables ; 

 they are entirely at the disposal of the Institution, to make any 

 use of them they may think fit, but I should like to call your 

 attention to certain broad facts which they present, and from 

 which we may draw our own deductions. 



First of all will be brought home to us by those difficult 

 things to confute, namely, hard figures, that which we must all 

 of us have known before, that in consequence of the vast and 

 extraordinary deposits of copper which have been found in other 

 parts of the word — I might almost say all over the world — our 

 county no longer occupies anything like the position it used to 

 possess amongst the copper producing districts of the world, but 

 that, on the contrary, it has been gradually producing less and less, 

 and has now become a comparatively small factor of the whole. 

 This, undoubtedly, is a state of things very much to be deplored, 

 but, at the same time, it is one that we must bow our heads to, 

 and meet as best we can. Fortunately some of our best copper 

 mines of days gone by have proved tin in the deej") ; nature, 

 as it were, coming to our assistance to enable us to meet the 

 vast deposit of copper she was about to exhibit to the hard}' 

 explorers and prospectors of the western hemisphere. 



But to return to these tables of facts which we have 

 before us. 



