limited coal fields, were diminishing at a rapid rate. In this ease 
the chemist, physicist and engineer have already come to the rescue 
of mankind, and the economic conversion into fertilising salts on a 
large scale of the unlimited and ever renewed supply of atmospheric 
nitrogen is a tangible proof of the success of their endeavours. 
The nitrogen famine is a bogey of the past, but local Australian 
famines, <?.</., in potash, mercury and platinum are only too ap- 
parent in times of emergency, and a shortage of gold is not bv any 
means unlikely in the near future. We have therefore reached a 
stage in the world’s history when the geochemist and geophysicist 
are increasingly important members of the community. 
Our gold yield is steadily decreasing and with it one of our 
greatest sources of wealth. Every month we hear of mines being 
closed down because the working expenses, and value of ore in 
sight, factors which have been steadily converging during recent 
years, have at last reached the same level and passed beyond it. 
Can the scientist be of any service in remedying this ? I unhesi- 
tatingly answer, yes. One direction in which the chemist can help 
1 shall deal with more fully later, viz., in devising cheaper methods 
of extraction, using chemical processes and reagents less expensive 
than those now used. T wish to consider an entirely different line 
of assistance, one that has been less studied by chemists, and one 
therefore which offers more scope and greater chances of obtaining 
successful results. I refer to the assistance which can be given to 
prospecting, using the term to cover not only the detection of quite 
new concentrations of gold, but the tracing of the entire course 
of those already disclosed. At present through a grievous lack 
of scientific knowledge, both phases arc largely directed by the 
ruinously expensive process of “ blind stabbing,” the chance open- 
ing of prospecting shafts, drives and bores, guided only by im- 
perfectly understood laws of geological structure and mechanical 
Assuring. Although these factors have considerable influence on 
the position and form of ore- deposits, the preponderating influence 
is chemical, being a matter of solubilities, ionisation, hydrolysis, 
oxidation, reduction, double decomposition, mass action and re- 
versibility of reactions under variations of temperature and pressure. 
To the majority of persons actively engaged in our primary 
mineral industries many of these terms are meaningless, it is 
doubtful if any of them could apply them at present with any 
practical effect to the problem of reducing the cost of searching 
for continued supplies of payable ore. For this the chemist himself 
is mainly to blame, for except in the domain of secondary enrich- 
ment, chemical investigation in the field of ore deposits has been 
comparatively meagre and unsystematic. 
It should not therefore be labour lost to bring before the 
scientists of this State, which has owed so much in the past, to a 
