II. MANUFACTURES.

The following table shows the present condition of the principal manufactories of Victoria. I regret that I am unable to furnish a similar statement for the other colonies:

Much has been said about the gold mines of Australia. Something remains to be said of its

COAL MINES.

Coal is undoubtedly one of the prime factors in the development of our modern civilization. During the reign of Edward I it is said that a man was actually put to death for burning coal, and yet to-day it warms the blood, feeds the furnaces, and runs the machinery of the world. In the language of Bryant, whilst it enables us to "laugh at winter," it makes

Mighty engines swim the sea
and is

Like its own monsters,
The moving soul of many a spinning-jenny.

Intrinsically a coal mine is more valuable than a gold mine. Gold having for the most part only an exchangeable or representative value, its purchasing power at any given period diminishes in the same ratio that its volume increases. Other things being equal, if the currency of the world were suddenly doubled, the exchangeable value of a dollar or a sovereign would be diminished by one half. Hence, to that large

class of persons whose incomes are represented by a fixed salary, the discovery of a new gold mine is a positive misfortune. But it is not so with coal. The world is made the richer by the discovery of every new coal-field. Consequently, it is of more importance to the permanent prosperity of a country that it should be rich in coal than that it should abound in the precious metals.

ORIGIN OF COAL.

With regard to the origin of coal various theories have been advanced by scientists, all agreeing, however, that it is purely of a vegetable character.

When George Stephenson declared that his engines were propelled by "heat from the sun which shone millions of years ago," he simply gave poetical expression to a scientific fact.

Perhaps the most probable theory as to the formation of coal is the following, as set forth in a recent number of the Victorian Review, by Mr. John Usher, to whom I am greatly indebted for much valuable information on this subject:

The coal-measure lands seem to have been nothing more nor less than forest marshes or swamps, and these swamps favored the growth of lycopod, which we call lepidodendron. Now, although closely allied to the common club-moss, which is measured by inches, the lepidodendron grew to the height of 100 feet. It was covered with scales all the way up and threw out branches at the top, which bore the fruit called lepidostrobus. This fruit contained a large quantity of spores or pollen, which was of a highly resinous nature. There is not the slightest doubt that it shed its spores annually, like its allies of the present day, and there would doubtless be a large quantity of them thrown off from the parent tree. Now, a microscopic examination of coal proves it to have been made up of those spores; and, although there are numerous traces of plant remains, such as calamite, sigillaria, &c., we are still compelled to admit that the great coal seams, as a rule, owe their existence to the seeds or pollen of the lepidodendron.

At first sight it may appear to us rather doubtful that such a quantity of coal should be the produce of such very minute things; but when we look to the fact that globegering and foraminifera are much smaller than these spores, and that chalk, to a very much greater thickness than all our coal seams, is made up almost entirely of these microzoa, we cease to be skeptical, and believe that such small things can exert a great influence in the formation of rocks.

Summing up the knowledge which we have gained by our investigations, we find, (1), that coal was formed in great marshes and swamps of vegetable matter-trees, such as calamite and sigillaria-but principally of the spores of the lepidodendron; (2), that all these grew on a clayey soil, and that the lycopods shed their spores over the ground below. We imagine a length of time to elapse sufficient to allow of an accumulation of those spores, and other vegetable matter, to a thickness sufficient to form a coal seam, and to allow the land to gradually sink until it was covered by the sea or transformed into a lake, after which the whole of the vegetation was covered with sand or mud, as the case might be, and one seam of coal is formed.

As to cannel coal, the formation seems to have been quite different to any other of the various kinds of coal. We suppose cannel coal to have been found at the bottom of a lake. In proof of this we find fish remains in it, but we have yet to learn that fish lived on dry land. Now, this cannel coal is a black substance which does not soil the fingers, and contains a larger portion of hydrogen than any other sorts. It is very difficult, nay, almost impossible, to tell of what plants it is composed. The vegetable matter has been so thoroughly macerated by its being so much in water that its structure cannot be ascertained. If we examine a lake where a river enters it, we will find that the river brings down with it a large quantity of stones, mud, and vegetable refuse. Stones, being heavier, fall to the bottom first; the mud is car ried farther toward the middle of the lake, and the vegetable matter being lighter than the rest, only falls when it is out of the reach of the river's current. This gives an idea of how this cannel coal is formed; and thus it is that it is found in basins instead of seams, and that these beds or basins always "thin out" and give place to shale or sandstone, or the like.

One other kind of coal is found in New South Wales, and in extensive fields in North America, called anthracite. It burns without smoke or flame, and is conse

quently valuable for iron smelting, instead of coke. Its chemical composition is almost entirely carbon, there being a very small amount of hydrogen in it. It might be thought that this coal is different from any others, but that is not so. It is formed just in the same way as other coal seams, but differs from them in that it has had the bitumen distilled out of in the shape of petroleum. When ordinary coal is put into a gas retort, the heat carries off its various ingredients as gases, which afterwards condense into tar, naphtha, ammonia, &c. Anthracite coal, however, is found only in countries which have been subject to volcanic outbursts, the heat from which has already distilled, as it were, the hydro-carbons from the coal, in the shape of petroleum, and left this dull substance which we call anthracite.

It is estimated that the distribution of coal rocks in Australasia embraces an area of nearly 270,000 square miles, while the ascertained coal area amounts to nearly 40,000 square miles.

NEW SOUTH WALES.

The coal-fields of New South Wales, so far as ascertained by the geological survey, embrace an area of 24,840 square miles, or about one-twelfth of that of the entire colony. The "eastern coal-field" alone covers an area of 15,419 square miles, with an average estimate of 10 feet in thickness of workable coal, which represents something like 1,500,000,000 tons, that at 10s. per ton, the average price during the last fifty years, approximates the enormous value of $3,750,000,000.

The coal measures of New South Wales present from eleven to eighteen different seams, and are found at various levels from 450 feet below to 1,500 feet above the level of the sea. The principal collieries are in the vicinity of Newcastle. The coal-bearing strata are about 500 feet thick. The lowest seam, which is the one generally worked, is from 8 to 15 feet in thickness. One seam, near Jamberoo, is over 25 feet thick.

The coal is bituminous and of excellent quality for steam, smelting, and household purposes. As the commercial value of coal varies, for the most part, in direct proportion to its geological age, it may be observed that the lower seams of the New South Wales coal series are regarded as geologically older than any at present worked in Europe.

Coal was discovered in New South Wales in 1797, but during the first thirty or forty years after its discovery, little was done to develop the industry. In 1801 a small brig, called the Amra Joseph, was freighted with timber and coals for the Cape of Good Hope, where the latter realized £6 per ton. In 1802 the export of coal was 974 tons. In 1882 1,080,446 tons were exported from Newcastle alone, of which 100,769 tous were shipped to San Francisco.

The following is a summary of the output of coal in New South Wales, and the value of the same, for the year 1882:

The following statement, tabulated from official documents just published, will show the development of the coal trade in New South Wales from 1829 to 1882, inclusive:

From this it will appear that the total output during this period has been 26,042,806 tons, valued at £13,204,272, and that the average price has been 10s. 2d. per ton. The output for 1882 largely exceeds in quantity that of any previous year, and also in value, with the exception of 1879, when the average price was 38. per ton higher.

NEW ZEALAND.

In New Zealand coal-mines are being worked in the provinces of Auckland, Canterbury, Nelson, and Otago, including Southland. Both the hydrous and anhydrous coals occur at the "base of a great marine formation, underlying limestone, clays, and sandstone of Cretaceous and Tertiary age, which have a thickness of several thousand feet, the coal seams occurring whenever the above formation is in contact with the older rock." The anhydrous varieties of coal are considered to be equal to the best imported for steaming purposes.

Bituminous coal is found mainly in the Nelson province. Accurate surveys of the Mount Rochfort, or Buller, coal-field show it to contain 140,000,000 tons of bituminous coal of prime quality, the seams of which are from 10 to 40 feet thick. The Brunner coal mine, on the Grey River, has an available working area of 30 acres, the seam being 18 feet in thickness, and the estimated amount of coal being 4,000,000 tons, which is workable for the most part above the water level. This coal has been pronounced the best in Australasia for steaming purposes, gas-works, and iron foundries, for which it readily commands a price from 10 to 20 per cent. higher than any other coal in the market. Its average evaporative power is 71⁄2 pounds of boiling water converted into steam for each 14708 C R, PT 2—48

pound of coal. Coke made from it is valued at $15 a ton. Coal mines in other parts of the Nelson district have also yielded excellent coal. One of the coal-fields of Otago is estimated to contain the enormous quantity of 1,152,000,000 tons of coal.

The Kawa-Kawa mine in Auckland, which has a workable seam of 13 feet in thickness, shows of late years a more rapid development, perhaps, than any other, mainly owing to the fact that the Union Shipping Company have adopted it for the use of their coastal steamers.

The following will show the yield of the principal collieries in the various districts or provinces of New Zealand for 1878, the date of the latest statistics at hand:

During the same year the total consumption of coal in the colony was 332,445 tons, of which 158,297 tons were derived from the domestic mines, the balance being imported, principally from New South Wales. The total exported was 3,921 tons. Owing to the fact that increased railway and shipping facilities, during the past few years, have given a decided stimulus to this valuable industry in New Zealand it is highly probable that the relative proportion of the foregoing figures has materially changed, and that ere long the output will be sufficient, not only to supply, for the most part, the home demand, but to have a surplus for foreign exportation.

OTHER COLONIES.

In Queensland, though immense coal-fields are known to exist, they remain, for the most part, undeveloped, chiefly owing to their remoteness from the seaboard, the difficulty of obtaining labor, and the limited means of transportation. The latter evil will, however, be remedied on the completion of the transcontinental railway, which will bring some of the larger coal areas in the interior in communication with ports of shipment both on the east coast and the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Of the mines worked at present, one is situated in the Wide Bay district, near the Burrum River, and so valuable are the coal-measures considered that some New South Wales mining speculators have obtained a concession from the government for the construction of a railway from the pits to the port of Maryborough. Another mine, on the Brisbane River averages an output of 50,000 tons annually, and of the coal-field on the Bowen River, Mr. Jack, the government geologist, says: "That it is the equivalent of the most valuable part of New South Wales measures."

In Victoria coal of good quality occurs in the Cape Patterson, Westernport, Gippsland, and Coleraine districts, but up to the present time no seams of sufficient thickness have been discovered to make the working of the mines remunerative. To stimulate the development of the industry, the Government provides the diamond drills to facilitate prospecting, and has promised to place the sum of £5,000 upon the esti