32 A^^NIVERSAEY ADDRESS. 



8J<,20S years," and, afc the present production of Great Britain, 

 " 112,000,000 tons per annum, our 8-foot seam would last about 

 751 years." 



This calculation is not, perhaps, strictly accurate, and it may 

 be doubted whether there is any continuous area of the kind as 

 9,868,160 statute acres, uninterrupted by intrusive rocks. 



But regarding this as a hypothetical case, the result may be 

 accepted, under the assured conviction that it falls very far short 

 of the actual quantity of coal in New South Wales, as will 

 ■ some day be proved. 



This subject. Gentlemen, has occupied so much of your time 

 as to leave but a small margin for two other topics, which I must 

 not pass over in silence. 



Metallifeeous Areas. 

 During the last year there has been a great declension in the 

 marketable value of shares in the metalliferous mines of the 

 Colony. But it is not surprising that disappointment of the kind 

 should have occurred, seeing that it has arisen in most instances 

 without any bearing upon the mines themselves. Stock-jobbing- 

 on the part of persons who have had no interest in the mines, 

 but only in their own profit by ventures in the market, does not 

 affect the actual value of the productive capacity of Avell-ascer- 

 taiued underground deposits. They remain pint as they were, 

 and cannot be affected by the trickery or the deception of such 

 as have taken advantage of ignorance or credulity, or the too 

 sanguine expectations of honest but incautious speculators. 

 Far from being discouraged by the results of these mistakes, I 

 , look forward to a nearer realization of the words I ventured to 

 use in my last year's Address, viz. : — " "When the excitement 

 that is (was then) rife shall have subsided, and we shall have less 

 dread of spelling speciilation without the initial letter, there will 

 be found inducements to study the structure of tlie countr}' 

 more than the market price of its products." 



But even the " excitement" had some good effects, for various 

 fresh finds of diamonds, cinnabar, copper, gold, iron, and tin 

 have occurred, and the laro;e area between the Darling and Bogan 



