IT sounds rather like a platitude to say that the systematic and intelligent keeping of accounts is as necessary to the success of a mining venture as to any other business undertaking, but I am afraid that in very many instances provision for the account department is too often the last thing to be thought of, or perhaps is not thought of at all, it being taken for granted that the mine manager, or the assayer, if there is one, will " make up the pay-sheet"; yet, after all, the ultimate goal of any mining, as indeed of any business venture, is the perusal from time to time of a page of figures which will show, it is hoped, that a substantial dividend may be paid.