CHINESE MINING METHODS. 45 



like coal, ironstone and orpiment belong to a separate class. Lead, 

 silver, zinc and gold deposits commence as a rule in this class and 

 are only transferred to the first when their production becomes 

 important. 



When a deposit has been located, if it belongs to group I, the 

 consent of the local authorities is necessary before it can be worked ; 

 in the case of group 2, an arrangement is made with the landowner. 

 This usually takes the form of an obligation to pay him a royalty. 

 A small fee is sometimes imposed by the local magistrate in addition 

 in the form of an annual rent. It is not a recognised tax and is 

 said to go no further than that officer's pocket. 



A central office or provincial mining bureau regulates affairs 

 in which the Government has a peculiar interest. This direction 

 is purely fiscal and not technical in any way. Officers are deputed 

 to each important mining centre whose duty it is to see that the 

 various taxes, in money or kind, for which each district is assessed, 

 are forwarded promptly to head- quarters. The prices paid to the 

 miners and Smelters is fixed by the bureau. If the district repre- 

 sentative can make more than this, he is at liberty to do so, and it 

 is his own perquisite. He is allowed to control the mines in any 

 way he pleases so long as peace is preserved and revenue forth- 

 coming. (Details of actual practice will be found in the second part 

 of this report.) To prove that the above statement is correct and 

 that the central control was a very lax one provided that revenue 

 was regularly collected the following quotations from the works of 

 Baber and Smith are given : — 



In referring to certain abuses in South-West China, connected 

 with the production of copper, Mr. Baber remarks " Before 

 the mines can be adequately worked, Yunnan must be peopled, 

 the Lolos must be fairly treated, roads must be constructed, the 

 facilites offered for navigation on the upper Yang-tze must be im- 

 proved — in short China must be civilised. A thousand years would 

 be too short to allow of such a consummation, unless some force from 

 without should accelerate the impulse." Arthur H. Smith in his 

 work " Chinese Characteristics," adds as a footnote to page 324 

 after giving the extract from Baber quoted above, " These signi- 

 ficant words of the late Mr. Baber have recently received a striking 

 confirmation from a memorial in the Peking Gazette of August, 

 1890, from T'ang Chiung, Director of Mines in Yunnan, who makes 

 a report in regard to the condition of the works and the output. 



