President’s Address. 
25 
rocks and fossils, for the National Museum, and some of 
them, as well as some of the Wardens of the gold-fields, 
have shown praiseworthy zeal and much intelligence in 
gathering together specimens illustrative of the rocks in 
which auriferous veins occur. There is already a large 
collection of rocks and minerals acquired in this way in the 
office of the Mining Department, all of which will be trans- 
ferred to the National Museum as soon as there is room to 
exhibit them. . It is gratifying to find that the Minister of 
Mines, while lie requires from the Surveyors strict attention 
to the several duties of their office, has evinced a strong 
desire to promote the interests of science by encouraging 
their scientific labours. 
If the recent attempts to open up Northern Gipps Land 
succeed, the unknown country at the sources of the Delatite 
and King, on the western side of the Great Range, and the 
vast area East of the Snowy River, where surveying parties 
are now employed in clearing tracks,* the resources of an 
immense hitherto unexplored country will be rapidly 
developed. 
Some rather unreasonable complaints have been made of 
the incompleteness of the mining statistics published by the 
Mining Department ; but having regard to the state of 
mining in the Colony, the extent of territory over which 
mining operations extend, and the difficulty of travelling in 
some parts of it, they will probably be found to bear favour- 
able comparison with those of most other countries. Here 
there are no large employers of labour from whom returns 
can be obtained ; but instead we have some thirty thousand 
miners (among a total of ninety -two thousand t) who are 
ready for any “ rush,” and it is not easy to follow their 
movements or chronicle their proceedings. It is to be 
remembered, too, that until the year 1858 we had no 
“ Mining Statistics,” and that those which have been pub- 
lished have been obtained from returns furnished by gentle- 
men not wholly in the employment of the Government, and, 
until lately, but partially under its control. 
The Mining Department co-operates with the Director of 
* As suggested by Mr. Sullivan in a letter to Mr. Grant, which was 
published about three months ago in The Argus. 
f The total number of miners at present is 92,368. 
