THE economics of mining may he defined as the "adoption of those principles which will result in the maximum production of any minerals with the minimum of waste"- such waste being caused by direct loss of ore,, or indirectly due to useless expenditure of large sums of money. The mineral wealth of a country is surely a national one, and the conditions of modern civilisation, of modern comfort, and of modern progress are so inseparably connected with the mineral industry that it is not only desirable, but absolutely our duty to conserve this wealth so as to obtain the greatest quantity possible, with the least amount of waste or destruction. The animal and vegetable world is reproductive, that is to say the species can be reproduced from year to year. The mineral wealth, speaking finitely, is not-once we destroy it, or in other words render it inaccessible by had and improper methods of mining, it is impossible to reproduce it, or make it grow again or multiply. Any company, syndicate, or body of men are entitled to enrich themselves by mining. if they can do so by a legitimate exercise of their enterprise, industry an intelligence, but surely they have nn right to destroy a valuable mineral deposit by sacrificing it the greed of obtaining wealth by wild cat speculation.