114 STATISTICAL REVIEW — NEW SOUTH WALES. 



"Whilst gold confounds all the theories of geologists and defies 

 their conclusions, the existence and extent of our Coal forma- 

 tions is a matter of as much certainty to the experienced eye of 

 the geologist as if it lay on the surface. And now that the 

 miners and their masters seem to have arrived at a better under- 

 standing, and to perceive that it is to the interest of both to 

 work in harmony, we may confidently hope that the production 

 may attain proportions which will place this industry in the first 

 rank amongst the products of the Country. In spite of the 

 many drawbacks which have attended the pursuit, it is satisfac- 

 tory to notice that whilst the average produce of the five years, 

 1862 to 1866, was 563,835 tons of coal annually, and an average 

 value of £281,998, or equal to not far short of a million and a 

 half, on the whole, the produce of the five years, 1867 to 1871, 

 reached a yearly average of 882,272 tons, of the value of £347,957, 

 or nearly a million and three-quarters on the whole. The value 

 of the coal in the first period is estimated at 10s. per ton, and in 

 the second period at barely 8s. per ton. Had the value remained 

 the same, the produce of the latter quinquennial period would 

 have realized £2,205,681, or nearly three-quarters of a million in 

 excess of the earlier period. The great development of our 

 coal mining industiy will be seen in the comparison of the last 

 with the preceding ten years : — 



Tons. Value. 



1852 to 1861 2,053,861 £1,401,321 



1862 to 1871 7,230,553 3,149,776 



COPPEB AND KeEOSENE ShaLE. 



These industi'ies, although promising great results in the future, 

 have not yet attained a development that swells up to any 

 material extent the resources of the Colony. I find that the 

 extent of the production in 1871 was — 



Of Copper £47,275 



And of Kerosene 34,050 



Total £81,325 



3. — Mantteactiiees. 



Under this branch of industry, we have no great progress to 

 boast of. The most noticeable feature in the returns is the 

 establishment within the last two years of fifty-seven mills for 

 the manufacture of sugar from the cane, grown on the northern 

 rivers. 



In the manufacture of woollen cloth, there has been an increase 

 of five to seven establishments only in the ten years, turning out 

 on the average for the last five years, 218,276 yards of cloth per 

 annum, against 120,719 yards the previous five years. 



