f labour into other less uncertain and less fluctuating channels 
- will be attended with greater benefit, not only to the best interests 
of the country but to the character and habits of the people. 
 Ooal.—In the ten years 1862 to 1871 our coal mines produced — 
7,230,552 tons of coal, of the value of £3,149,776, or at the rate 
_ of alittle over 9s. per ton. In the ten years 1872 to 1881 they 
_ produced 13,927,800 tons, of the value of £7,364,293, or at the rate 
_ trather over 10s. 6d. per ton, estimated, I believe, as at the pit’s 
_ mouth. The progress of this industry has been seriously retarded 
is by the frequency of the unfortunate disputes between masters and 
_ men, Our export of coal has not kept pace with that of industries 
_ 6fmnuch less promise. In 1871 it amounted to 565,429 tons, of the 
Value of £256,690, whilst in 1881 it amounted to only 1,029,844 
of the value of £416,530. The home demand is with difficulty 
supplied, whilst the foreign trade is driven to other countries 
Where the labour difficulty is less precarious; and this trade, which 
should hold the place as second only to that of wool, makes but a 
very poor figure in the general exports of the country. 
I should not be doing justice to our mining industry were I to 
omit any mention of our tin, copper, and kerosene shale. Tin did 
not find a place in my review of the Colony’s pro 
an epartment of Mines, and I give it to you as it is given to 
®:—“Previous to the year 1851 coal was the only mineral 
rem, and even up to the year 1871 the only minerals which had 
Sat i were coal, shale, gold, copper, and antimony 3 
ting the ten years ending December 31, 1881, tin, silver, 
thstanding the decrease in t value of the 
gold, from £1,259,864 in 1871 to £1,107,560 
en an inc ‘in the annual production 
rals taken together of from £1,475,372, in 1871, to 
The development © in-mining, WIC 
rogress that the mining industry of New South 
is apparent when we compare the value of the 
the past ten years with that of the production 
receding decades: Value raised 
years ending 1841, £81,275; 
1871, £16,638,574; 1881, = 
© of the coal raised prior to 1832 is £4,194. 
cannot fail to show the increasing and national importance 
g interests of New South Wales.” 
Wales 
mineral 
1851, £634,937 ; 
|, -£28,441,800. 
