Of prime importance to this and every other country is the 
early compilation of a complete census of our mineral resources, 
whether the matter is viewed from the point of view of national 
safety, or of facility of mineral production or of economy of manu- 
facture. The foundations of this have been laid by our Geological 
Survey during the past 25 years, it is only, however, the foun- 
dations that have been laid, and the completion of the stocktaking 
will tax for many years to come the energies of all our available 
geologists, chemists, physicists and quantity surveyors. Such a 
stocktaking can never be finalised as new discoveries are made 
from year to year, but only when it is completed right up to date 
will we be in a position to meet all national emergencies, and to 
manufacture essential mineral products in successful competition 
with foreign rivals. 
Questions of organisation and administration are not usually 
looked upon amongst us as lying within the ambit of the scientist, 
though rightly I think, so considered by our cousins of the United 
States. The present organisation of our mine staffs certainly 
deserves careful thought. The prime objects of a mining engineer 
are to detect and follow ore bodies and to exploit and bring the 
ore to the surface. It is for these duties that he receives a long 
and careful education, and if through any cause he is compelled 
to neglect these duties, they are imperfectly and uncconomically 
carried out by someone less efficient in this particular direction. 
Too often these days a mine manager's time and thought are ex- 
pended on labour troubles, or preparing evidence and attending 
arbitration courts. This is surely not as it should be, for under 
these conditions the mining engineers’ special technical knowledge 
is being lost to the mine he controls, with a disastrous effect upon 
the life and economic productiveness of the property. The possi- 
bility of groups of mines employing collectively labour and arbi- 
tration experts, leaving their engineering staffs free to concentrate 
their energies on engineering problems, seems worthy of consider- 
ation as one method of dealing with the existing unsatisfactory 
condition of affairs. 
Let us consider some asj^ects of the relationship of the chemist 
to the mineral industry. One should bear in mind from the outset 
that Nature herself is the super chemist, with her mighty workshops 
and ceaseless activity through countless ages. Very little con- 
sideration will lead us to realise that all man’s activities are ulti- 
mately dependent upon the continued supply by nature at the 
earth's surface of crude mineral matter of suitable kind for the 
use of living organisms. To-night we are specially concerned with 
the necessary supply to mankind of the minerals, metals and in- 
organic salts, which form the basis of the mineral industry, and 
which in times of peace our modern civilisation is demanding yearly 
at a rapidly increasing rate, and which in times of war are essential 
to our national defence. 
