Australia, as well as in South Africa and Japan. Even under 

 present conditions there are vessels leaving Melboui^ne that 

 could profitably be loaded down two or three feet if the depth 

 ■of water allowed. If sufficient capital were expended to provide 

 facilities for the rapid and cheap mechanical coaling of such 

 vessels in Hobart, Tasmanians might obtain work and profits in 

 return for the depth of water in the Derwent. 



Another practical achievement tending to lower freights in 

 the future has been the successful test of the internal combus- 

 tion engine, worked with producer gas on a scale suitable for 

 ocean-going" vessels. This invention is more remarkable for the 

 great economy in wages of stokers, trimmers, and engineers 

 than in the already well-known economy in fuel obtainable by 

 using producer gas. Nevertheless some years must elapse before 

 this system is adopted commercially to any great extent. It is 

 suggested that the gas engines running at high velocity in one 

 direction should produce electricity to be redeveloped by motors, 

 reversible and adjustable, operating propellors at an eflicient 

 rate of revolution. 



The control of water resources for the purpose of generat- 

 ing power and of irrigation is receiving all over the world the 

 keen attention of sagacious men, eager to appropriate unearned 

 increments now going to waste. 



In countries long settled and thickly populated, riparian 

 rights, catchment areas, and land values complicate and impede 

 this line of progress. In a new country, rapidly developing, and 

 gifted with high tablelands and ample rainfall, such as this State 

 of ours, the sooner the level of lakes is raised, and new lakes 

 are created by damming rivers, the better for the future pros- 

 pects of large manufacturing development created by the appli- 

 tion of water power. 



Another possibility of the regulation of water for irrigation 

 purposes may be illustrated by reference to the Derwent. If 

 this river were provided vi^ith a lock this side of Bridgewater, 

 steamers could pass freely, while the salt water would be pre- 

 vented from contaminating many miles of river bank, along 

 which fresh-water irrigation would become available. 



With reference to minerals, the transmutation of metals has 

 been achieved, or at least there is very weighty scientific autho- 

 rity for this assertion. Rubies and sapphires have been manu- 

 factured on a commercial scale in absolute equality with the 

 natural stones as regards chemical composition, and mechanical 

 tests of hardness and of refraction of light. 



But it is still cheaper to mine silver than to produce it by 

 transmutation from copper, and Tasmanian miners need have no 

 anxiety by reason of this great discovery, even if it be all that 

 is asserted of it. Sapphires are found in Tasmania; they are 

 distinguished from manufactured sapphires by showing flaws 

 and other defects, well known to those who possess genuine 

 stones. The manufactured sapphire has the peculiar fault of 

 being absolutely uniform and flawless. Tasmanian copper may 

 suft'er from the great development of aluminium, which is now 

 being produced so cheaply that it has become, for a given price, 

 a much cheaper conductor of electricity than copper. 



