APPENDIX. 41 



quoted above (from Mr, Selwyn, 24itli June, 1863), as to a cost 

 of £24,300. 



On searcliing tlie "Votes and Proceedings" of tlae Parliament 

 of Victoria from 1863 to 1872, it is found that the united annual 

 expenditures under the head of " Minister for Mines" for that 

 period come to no less a sum than £197,983 14s. 5d. 



Selecting out of these amounts only Mr. Brache's estimates, 

 Mr. Selwyn's own return, and the figures given in the Votes and 

 Proceedings, we have an acknowledged expenditure for Surveys 

 and Mining establishments, from 1852 to 1872 inclusive, not 

 merely £100,000, but of no less a sum than £263,400 4s. 3d. 

 sterling. 



Such an example of faith and perseverance is not deserving of 

 censure, but of praise and imitation ; and it would be well for us 

 of this Colony if we could quote from among our many specula- 

 tive operations a similar instance of devotion to the cause of 

 development of natural resources. 



As the above data are taken from ofEicial sources, they are 

 probably correct, although there may be others which have not 

 yet fallen in my way. 



Of this great amount, some w'as, I presume, expended on 

 " search f 07' coaV ; but there are items of expenditure for coal 

 only which deserve consideration, and which w^ere incurred either 

 by the Government or by private individuals and Companies. 



Thus, in the district of Bellerine and Paywit, including 

 QueensclifF, the Government cost of sinking and boring through 

 4,688 feet of strata was, up to 1863, £3,557 lis. 3d., but without 

 any practical result. 



The Government expenditure on account of the -Griffith's Point 

 Company, up to 19th January, 1866, was £888 10s. 6d. They 

 " reached a depth of 822 feet 2 inches, without any coal having 

 been cut." — (Selwyn's Report, 1865, p. 21.) 



I do not know the full cost of Government coal search about 

 Cape Patterson, but the Coal Company of that name had, in 1860, 

 expended £3,050.— (Selwyn, May, 1860.) The same author tells 

 us that, " during the last ten or twelve years, probably more than 

 double that amount has been expended in the district, while 

 about 100 tons of coal is all that has been brought to market." — 

 (Selwyn's Catalogue of Victorian Exhibition, 1861, p. 185.) 



Mr. Brough Smyth (Official Eecord, 1872-3) admits that 

 " during the period from 1854 to 1868 many thousands of pounds 

 were expended in boring and sinking shafts in the Cape Patterson 

 Coal Field " and (p. 101-3) up to 31st December, 1871, there had 

 been raised in the Colony 2,033 tons of coal, and 1,992 tons of 

 lignite, whilst at Lai Lai, in 1871, there were raised 995 tons of 

 brown coal, about half of which was saleable. 



Mr. H. Levi says (Minutes of Evidence, 23rd April, 1872 -' 

 Eeport of Board, p. 28) that " the Victorian Coal Company 



