promulgated, which was largely modelled on the miners' rules then current in Australia, and included the apex doctrine. The output from this district was also small and did not attract the attention of the outside world until 1861, when the Otago fields were found. This was followed in 1863 by the discoveries at Marlboro, and in 1865 by the opening of the West Coast diggings. About this time attention was drawn toward quartz mining, and as the alluvial deposits one by one gave signs of exhaustion and passed into dredging propositions, the need of a code of laws to cover the necessities of underground operations was felt. Hence, in 1877 a general mining law was enacted in which the apex doctrine was abandoned, and the general principles in effect by that time in Australia were adopted. In 1866 a special law was passed covering the mining of coal and Kauri gum. From time to time since then alterations and amendments have been enacted at almost every session of the colonial parliament.

Tasmanian settlement by whites began in 1803 by the arrival of 400 English convicts at the mouth of the Derwent river at the southern end of the island and the foundation of Hobartstown, which became the capital of the colony. In the following year another company of convicts was landed on the northern coast, resulting in the establishment of the city of Launceston at the head of the estuary of the Tamar river. By 1852 when gold was first discovered, the population of the island had increased to 50,000 and considerable areas of public land had been alienated. Prior to 1837 no grants contained any reservation of minerals, but in that year the authorities began the reservation of gold and silver. When gold production commenced the Governor issued a proclamation declaring that all kinds of gold deposits, whether alluvial or quartz, and whether on the public domain or on alienated land, were the property of the government, and if mined without license would result in criminal prosecution. In 1859 the first goldfield act was promulgated, and in 1862 the law was amended so as to include all minerals. In this law, and in those that have since been enacted referring to the mining industry, the fundamental principles of the existing Australian

system were adopted, and since then no mining rights other than leaseholds have existed, while practically all freehold titles that had previously been acquired have, by forfeiture or condemnation, returned to the government. So complete has been this process that Tasmania, of all the dependencies of the British Empire, is today the most perfect example of the results producible by the system on the mining industry.

Under this law and regime development lagged in the colony except in those places where alluvial gold had already been found, and as these proved of small area and but moderately productive as compared with the Australian and American fields the pioneer explorers rapidly drifted away. However, a revival of activity took place in 1871 with the accidental discovery of the Mt. Bischoff tin deposits, and again in 1882 and 1886, when the silverlead mines of Zeehan and the copper mines of Mt. Lyell were discovered. None of these have been followed by other finds of importance in the same vicinity or elsewhere, and on the whole the industry has declined markedly in importance during late years.

CHAPTER XXI

CONCLUSION

It is impossible to study the mining laws of the nations without coming to the conclusion that many of them have been framed by individuals better acquainted with the business of legislation than with that of finding and developing mines. This is particularly true of nearly all the British laws, and is very much less the case among those of the Latin-American class. The most notable instance of the contrasting results produced by the two methods of construction is perhaps that of the American Federal mining law as compared with that of the British South African dependency of Rhodesia. The former was framed by the miner and explorer, without the aid of either the lawyer or the mining engineer; the latter by the lawyer and engineer without any signs of assistance from the practical miner.

As discovery and preliminary exploration must precede permanent development and operation, the method that seems to have been generally followed should have been reversed. But laws referring to specialized industries have usually been drawn by legislators rather than by operators, and have been brought into workable condition thereafter only by long processes of amendment. It has been the good fortune of America that its law was drafted by miners, and the results that have been attained under it would seem to indicate that, in the main, their work was commendable. This is not to say that it is perfect and cannot be improved, or that many of the others produced under opposite conditions are all wrong in principle. Had there been a lawyer or two among the California pioneers to put the ideas of the latter into clearer phraseology, or an engineer or two to explain what was known in those days of the forms of

ore occurrences, it is quite possible that much subsequent grief might have been avoided.

In the digests presented in this volume very marked contrasts will be found in methods aiming to bring about identical ends. The farther back one looks into the history of mining the simpler the rules, regulations, and customs are found to be. This, of course, points to times when the unoccupied public domain of each community was large, the mining class small, the demand for the precious metals for coinage purposes insistent, and that for the base metals limited mainly to what was required for weapons. That was the real golden age of the miner; and the frequently frantic call on his fraternity for more gold and silver by the Lords of the Middle ages, and for more iron by the fighting class of the same period indicate the extent to which, even in those primitive days, the world was dependent on him for the tools and appliances of progress.

To-day mining is one of the great activities of civilization ranking next to agriculture among those having to do with the output of raw material. If we consider only the production of metals it might perhaps be advanced to the first place as a source of new wealth. For while the foodstuffs raised by the farmer this year are practically all eaten up by the time the next harvest has matured, all the coal, oil, and tobacco burned up, and all the cotton, wool, and silk well on the way to being worn out, it is not so with the metals. Zinc and lead in the form of paint (their largest use) have a life of at least five years, while in other forms their term of endurance must certainly be rated at double that figure. Iron, when converted into tools, machinery, structural shapes, etc., not only has a still longer life, but becomes capable of earning money in the form of interest and rental for its possessor. Copper and tin persist through a yet lengthier term of active existence before they disappear. Gold and silver as coin endure until they are lost. Probably some of the yellow metal that was employed in gilding Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem, and more or less of that won from the sands of the river Pactolus by the slaves of Croesus, is in circulation to-day. A

million dollars' worth of the ordinary metals may be regardedfrom the point of view of accumulating wealth—as the equivalent of from $5,000,000 to $25,000,000 worth of grain or meat, while that amount of the precious metals would then certainly be as valuable as $100,000,000 worth of foodstuffs.

Taking the figures of the year 1913 as a basis, to avoid the unnaturally high prices produced by the war, the value of the world's annual crop of the common metals may be stated in round figures about as follows:

This annual crop comes into the market from its various

sources of production in about the following amounts:

From this analysis of the subject it is not difficult to understand the value of the metal producing industry to the nations, and the importance of metal mining law as a department of jurisprudence; and if we consider the latter as primarily intended mainly to encourage the discovery of the metallic resources, and secondarily to govern the operations of mining, the subject