until the year 1892, when it began to increase rapidly, but not to

its former level, the values for 1900 and 1905 being £3,142,000 and £3,138,000. There has been an important increase in Queensland, which advanced from £1,696,000 in 1876 to £2,843,000 in 1900, and subsequently declined to £2,489,000 in 1905. There has been no increase, and, indeed, no large fluctuation until quite recently in the output of New Zealand, which averaged £1,054,000 per annum from 1876 to 1898, but the production of the two years 1900 and 1905 rose to £1,425,459 and £2,070,407 respectively. By far the most important addition to the Australasian product has come from West Australia, which began its production in 1887—about the time of the inception of mining at Witwatersrand (“the Rand”) in South Africa—and by continuous increase, which assumed large proportions towards the close of the 19th century, was £6,426,000 in 1899, £6,179,000 in 1900, and £8,212,000 in 1905. The total Australasian production in 1908 was valued at £14,708,000.

Undoubtedly the greatest of the gold discoveries made in the latter half of the 19th century was that of the Witwatersrand district in the Transvaal. By reason of its unusual geological character and great economic importance this district deserves a more extended description. The gold occurs in conglomerate beds, locally known as “banket.” There are several series of parallel beds, interstratified with quartzite and schist, the most important being the “main reef” series. The gold in this conglomerate reef is partly of detrital origin and partly of the genetic character of ordinary vein-gold. The formation is noted for its regularity as regards both the thickness and the gold-tenor of the ore-bearing reefs, in which respect it is unparalleled in the geology of the auriferous formations. The gold carries, on an average, £2 per ton, and is worked by ordinary methods of gold-mining, stamp-milling and cyaniding. In 1899, 5762 stamps were in operation, crushing 7,331,446 tons of ore, and yielding £15,134,000, equivalent to 25.5% of the world’s production. Of this, 80% came from within 12 m. of Johannesburg. After September 1899 operations were suspended, almost entirely owing to the Boer War, but on the 2nd of May 1901 they were started again. In 1905 the yield was valued at £20,802,074, and in 1909 at £30,925,788. So certain is the ore-bearing formation that engineers in estimating its auriferous contents feel justified in assuming, as a factor in their calculations, a vertical extension limited only by the lowest depths at which mining is feasible. On such a basis they arrived at more than £600,000,000 as the available gold contained in the Witwatersrand conglomerates. This was a conservative estimate, and was made before the full extent of the reefs was known; in 1904 Lionel Phillips stated that the main reef series had been proved for 61 m., and he estimated the gold remaining to be mined to be worth £2,500,000,000. Deposits similar to the Witwatersrand banket occur in Zululand, and also on the Gold Coast of Africa. In Rhodesia, the country lying north of the Transvaal, where gold occurs in well-defined quartz-veins, there is unquestionable evidence of extensive ancient workings. The economic importance of the region generally has been fully proved. Rhodesia produced £386,148 in 1900 and £722,656 in 1901, in spite of the South African War; the product for 1905 was valued at £1,480,449, and for 1908 at £2,526,000.

The gold production of Russia has been remarkably constant, averaging £4,899,262 per annum; the gold is derived chiefly from placer workings in Siberia.

The gold production of China was estimated for 1899 at £1,328,238 and for 1900 at £860,000; it increased in 1901 to about £1,700,000, to fall to £340,000 in 1905; in 1906 and 1907 it recovered to about £1,000,000.