uld understand practical mine
surveying and calculation of quantities, be able to dial and plot out
his workings, and prepare an intelligible plan thereof for the use of
the Directors, and should understand sufficient of physics, particularly
pneumatics and hydraulics, to ensure thoroughly efficient pumping
operations without loss of power from unnecessarily heavy appliances.
Any other scientific knowledge applicable to his business which he may
have acquired will tell in his favour, but he must, above all things,
be a thoroughly practical man. Such men will in time be more readily
procurable, as boys who have passed through the various Schools of Mines
will be sent to learn their business practically at the mines just as we
now, having given a lad a course of naval instruction, send him to sea
to learn the practical part of his life's work.

But, of course, more is wanted on a mine than a man who can direct the
sinking of shafts, driving of levels, and stoping of the lode. Much
loss and disappointment have resulted in the past from unsuitable,
ineffective, or badly designed and erected machinery, whether for
working the mine or treating the ores. To obviate this defect a
first-class mining engineer is required.

Then, also, day by day we are more surely learning that mining in all
its branches is a science, and that the treatment of ores and extraction
of the metals is daily becoming more and more the work of the laboratory
rather than of the rule-of-thumb procedure of the past. Every mine,
whether it be of gold, silver, tin, copper, or other metal, requires the
supervision of a thoroughly qualified metallurgist and chemist, and one
who is conversant with the newest processes for the extraction of the
metals from their ores and matrices.

It has then been stated that to ensure effective working each mine
requires, in addition to competent directors, a business manager,
mining-manager, and assistants, engineer, chemist, and metallurgist,
with assistant assayers, etc., all highly qualified men. But it will be
asked, how are many struggling mines in sparsely populated countries
to obtain the services of all these eminent scientists? The reply is by
co-operation. One of the most ruinous mistakes of the past has been that
each little mining venture has started on an independent course, with
different management, separate machinery, etc. Can it then be wondered
at that our gold-mining is not always successful?

Under a c