A mixture of sodium and potassium carbonates in such proportion as to give the lowest fusing mixture possible were brought to a quiet fusion in a platinum dish. The electrode with its deposit was then dipped into the fused mass, and rotated until the electrode was coated with the fusion material. The temperature was then raised, and the heating continued until the electrode showed a smooth coat of the fused carbonates. The melt was taken up with water and carefully acidified with dilute nitric acid until just neutral or slighfly basic. A large portion of the carbon dioxide was removed in this way. The slightly basic solution was then heated to boiling for a short time and allowed to cool. A slight excess of nitric acid was then added and the solution was again made alkaline with a slight excess of ammonia. On boiling the solution several minutes the remaining carbon dioxide was driven off as ammonium carbonate. At the same time the uranium was precipitated as ammonium uranate. This was filtered off and the fluorine in the filtrate was then determined by precipitation from a neutral solution as calcium fluoride.

The varying results in the uranium content given in Tables II. and III. would indicate that the deposit was not always uniform. The fluorine result in Sample 2 was lost through breakage. The amount of fluorine found in Sample I is very close to the theoretical amount required to form UF, with the uranium present. Taking the difference between 100 and the per cent of uranium and fluorine as water, the empirical formula for the deposit would be UF 6H2O. The water was not determined quantitatively directly, but its presence was proven qualitatively. The fluorine was proven to be present by testing the precipitate formed with calcium for fluorine.

The white deposit formed when an aqueous solution of potassium uranyl fluoride is electrolysed, whether in neutral or acid solution, is insoluble uranous fluoride. The uranium is evidently deposited upon the cathode as UO3 and immediately converted to the fluoride by the hydrofluoric acid present. No metallic uranium is obtained by the electrolysis of the double potassium uranyl fluoride.

The potential of the uranyl fluoride deposit is -0.389 volt. Whenever the deposit was blackened the potential found was the same as that of the black deposit obtained from aqueous solutions of uranyl nitrate and uranyl oxalate.

9. Electrolysis of Potassium Uranyl Fluoride in
Ammoniacal Solution.

It was found that ammonium hydroxide would not pre cipitate uranium from aqueous uranyl solutions in the pre sence of hydroxylamine. The deposition of uranium from alkaline solution was tried with no results. The deposits formed were the colour of bronze with a fringe of green. A larger deposit could be obtained in a shorter time than was possible in acid solution, and this deposit contained a larger per cent of uranium. The composition of the deposit was not constant as shown by analysis.

TABLE IV.

Weight of deposit (grm.)
Weight of U3O8 ..
Weight of uranium
Per cent of uranium

tion with a pressure of 4 volts and an average current The deposits were obtained by electrolysing the soludensity of 18 amp. Stationary electrodes were used and the container rotated. The single potentials of these deposits were not measured.

10. Electrolysis of Fused Potassium Sodium Uranate. A fused bath of potassium sodium uranate was prepared by fusing a mixture of potassium and sodium carbonate in a nickel crucible and adding the green uranium oxide to the melt. This dissolved in the carbonates with evolution of carbon dioxide and formed a molten mass. The first attempt was made wi h platinum electrodes. The fused material was electrolysed under a pressure of 3 volts and a current density approximately ‍33 amp. The alkali metals, which separated out along with the uranium at the cathode, burned near the surface of the melt. The platinum was attacked by the burning alkalis, and almost eaten through at the surface of the melt. The portion below the melt was not injured quite so much, but became brittle and broke up when the electrode was removed. The electrode was washed first with cold water and finally with dilute acetic acid. The platinum that was below the surface of the melt was grey and would not clear up in treating with concentrated nitric acid. When heated on the lid of a platinum crucible the grey coat became green and could then be dissolved off with nitric acid. Qualitative test indicated that metallic_uranium had actually been deposited on the platinum. The black powder that had washed off the electrode with water was uranium oxide.

Electrolysis of a similar bath with nickel electrodes gave a black powder around the cathode. This was insoluble in water and in acetic acid and was difficultly soluble in dilute nitric acid. From its behaviour toward nitric acid it appears to be powdered metallic uranium mixed with some black uranium oxide. The nickel electrode contained no deposit of uranium with which a potential | reading could be taken, nor was it possible to make an analysis of the small amount of the black powder obtained. To be continued).

THE ALLOYS OF COPPER AND SILICON.* By M. A. SANFOURCHE.

THE alloys of the copper-silicon series have been studied by a large number of investigators, who have indicated certain definite chemical compounds formed by the two elements (see Baraduc-Muller, Revue de Metallurgie, 1910). The more recent work attempts to prove the nonexistence of certain of these compounds. Rudolfi in his diagram does not show any compounds other than SiCu3 and Si Cu1g. This latter compound is indicated as being formed by reactions occurring in the solid alloys.

A provisional solidification diagram has already been described by the present author in conjunction with M. Vigouroux (Revue de Metallurgie, 1912). The work has now been completed, and the complete diagram, including the transformations in the solid state, is now described.

The purity of the materials used in the investigation is discussed. For microscopic examination it was found that an etching with HNO3 followed by a very light polishing served to show up the harder constituents in relief. S.veral

* Revue de Metallurgie, July-August, 1919.

specimens were examined after treating with a boiling potash solution. The action of this reagent was not very strong, but it was found to hasten the differential colouring of the constituents, which otherwise was found to take many days' exposure to the atmosphere to take the red or iridescent colour necessary for examination by this method. The diagram is then described. In the first portion of the diagram from o'o to 8 60 per cent silicon two series of solid solutions are found, which are designated alpha and beta. The alpha range extends to a concentration of 7.58 per cent silicon and the beta range from 7:58 to 8.60 per cent silicon.

Another series of solid solutions are formed at the 7.58 per cent concentration by reaction between the alpha solution already deposited and the mother liquid. This series is denoted as b. The alpha solid solutions do not exhibit transformations after solidification.

The beta solid solutions undergo two successive transformations, as follows:-(1) A transformation designated C1 marked by a slight retardation in the rate of cooling or heating at a temperature of 774° C. in the 8.50 per cent alloy. The transformation indicates the appearance of a new phase, 81, of the ß crystals. (2) An analogous transformation, C2, during which the 8 crystals are transformed into a new form, 82, at a temperature of 728° C. The temperature of the transformation is but little influenced by the variation in composition of 81.

In the second portion of the diagram from 8.60 per cent to 12 10 per cent silicon a eutectic point occurs with a concentration of 10 per cent silicon at a temperature of 815° C. Two new series of solid solutions are formed designated respectively and J. The series show a maximum at 12.10 per cent silicon at a temperature of 853° C. Both these solid solutions undergo transformations in the solid state.

All the alloys containing more than 12.10 per cent silicon are subject after a time to spontaneous alteration, which is accompanied by an alteration in volume with a tendency to break into fragments. This alteration commences to manifest itself after a period of several months, and would appear to be complete after about one year. It is also more predominant in those alloys richer in

silicon.

In concluding, it is considered that there still remains considerable doubt as to whether true chemical compounds exist in the series. The only maximum appearing on the liquidus curves, and to which the formula Cu3Si was assigned by Rudolfi, is considered to more nearly correspond to the formula Cur9Si4.-Technical Review, v., No. 52.

THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN.*

ITS OBJECTS AND SCOPE.

THE Pharmaceutical Society originated seventy-eight years ago by the coming together in London of certain chemists and druggists, who resolved to resist an attack on the rights of chemists to dispense prescriptions and supply medicines, in attempted legislation at the instance of an Association of Apothecaries, of which it was said: "The obvious tendency of the Bill is to depress and ruin, and eventually to extirpate, the compounding chemists and druggists." There was also a constant tendency to put the practice of pharmacy under the control of the medical practitioners. The voluntary association of chemists and druggists determined to resist any such subordination. It was held that pharmacy was a distinct and separate department of the healing art, and, through the efforts of the

An Address given by Mr. J. Rutherford Hill, Resident Secretary in Scotland of the Pharmaceutical Society at a meeting of the Edinburgh Chemists', Assistants', and Apprentices' Association on December 10.

founders of the Society, its distinctive position and rights and privileges were for the first time put on a clear and independent basis. This was accomplished chiefly through the disinterested efforts of a few leading London pharmacists, of whom Jacob Bell was the most distinguished; but even from the very outset prominent pharmacists in Edinburgh and some other parts of Scotland were included in the membership of the Society, the most conspicuous of these being Mr. John MacKay.

An Earlier Movement.

It is of interest to note a similar movement in Edinburgh so far back as 1785, when the Society of Druggist Apothecaries was incorporated. The Articles of Association are signed, among others, by Mr. John Moncrieff, the founder of J. F. Macfarlan and Co., and James Gardner, of Gardner and Ainslie. The former was the son of the Rev. Sir H. Wellwood Moncrieff, of St. Cuthbert's Church, and the latter was the son of the Session Clerk of St. Cuthbert's. That society was established on a basis of education, examination, and registration, but for some reason seems not to have been maintained in full activity. The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has a charter right to grant a certificate to practise pharmacy, and it for the membership of the Society of Druggist Apothecaries was in this connection that a qualification was provided in 1852 he found a committee in existence in Edinburgh, of 134 years ago. When Jacob Bell came to Edinburgh and James Gardner was able to explain that it represented what remained of the old society of 1785. The articles of association of this society were presented to the North British branch by Mr. James MacKenzie in 1895. It was Board of Examiners for Scotland co-ordinate with the on the basis of this still existing committee that, when a Board of Examiners for England and Wales was estabished by statute in 1852, the local elected body-now known as the Executive of the North British Branch-was established. While the Board of Examiners was fixed by statute, the Executive of the North British Branch and the maintenance of a Scottish headquarters of the Society under the general control of the Council as the supreme governing body was based on an honourable agreement sentatives of Scottish pharmacists, chiefly under the between Jacob Bell, acting for the Council, and the repreguidance of Mr. John MacKay.

The Voluntary Basis.

The Pharmaceutical Society founded in 1841 was a purely voluntary association, ready to do anything and everything likely to secure the recognition of the pharmacist as a distinct and independent craftsman. From the very outset, however, at least three aspects of its work became sufficiently prominent to be distinctly specifiednamely (1) education, examination, and registration as a guarantee of professional efficiency; (2) the safeguarding in all necessary ways of the legitimate rights and interests and (3) the providing of a fund to relieve distressed memof those carrying on the business of chemists and druggists; bers of the society. There is no evidence that these main purposes were intended to be inclusive of all the activities has never for a moment hesitated at any time to deal with chemist or germane to the business of a chemist and any matter relating to the profession of a dispensing druggist. The circumstances of the early days, however, made it necessary to lay the emphasis chiefly on education, examination, and registration. These are the centre and core, the very raison d'être of pharmacy as a distinct and separate craft. On that solid foundation the stability and success of the superstructure must depend, and if the professional element is ever neglected or eliminated pharmacy as a distinct craft would cease to exist, and the main purpose for which the society was founded would disappear. But the moment men in any craft begin to associate for any purpose other common interests emerge which imme

of the Society, nor have they ever been so. The Society

diately claim the attention of, and are dealt with by, the persons who have become associated. The experience of the Pharmaceutical Society has resembled all other associations of members of a common craft in this respect.

Obtaining the Charter.

The first President of the Society was William Allen, a distinguished London Quaker, who was deeply interested in philanthropic work and was consulted in this con nection by Queen Victoria, who held him in high esteem. Through his association with the Queen he was able to secure a Royal Charter of Incorporation for the Pharma: ceutical Society in 1843. This gave the Society an enhanced status and high privilege, which entitled it to be regarded as the officially recognised exponent and representative of pharmacy in Great Britain. Naturally the three main objects of the Society were specifically embodied in the Royal Charter, and the means by which these objects and the general business of the Society are to be carried out are specified in detail. Thus arise the Charter rights and powers and duties of the Society, for the due execution of which it was originally answerable to the Crown. In a business so mixed as that of a chemist and druggist there are many questions arising which are common to other classes of business in which similar articles are sold. This danger of diffuseness in operations was present to the mind of Jacob Bell when he said :

Those who are sincere in the desire for the advancement of our own legitimate profession, which is pure pharmacy, will perceive the importance of confining our attention as much as possible to that pursuit."

It seems quite clear that Jacob Befl's ideal of the Pharmaceutical Society was not a commercial association, but rather an educational and professional and scientific society, and it has always retained these features in an eminent degree.

The Poison Laws.

A few years prior to 1851 the occurrence of numerous arsenic poisoning cases caused public alarm and claimed the attention of Parliament. Chemists and druggists urged limitation of the sale to trained persons, but there was no statutory definition of a chemist and druggist and no official register. Limitation to competent vendors was therefore impracticable, and hence the futile Arsenic Act of 1851. But an issue had been raised which led to legislation at a later date. Meantime the Pharmaceutical Society promoted and secured Parliamentary sanction for the Pharmacy Act of 1852. It has nothing whatever to do with poisons, and seeks to accomplish its purpose by limitation of professional titles to qualified, examined, and registered persons. Its purpose is stated to be "To prevent ignorant and incompetent persons pretending to be pharmacists." The statute is based on the Society's Royal Charter, which it extends and modifies and incorporates in the Act itself. The Charter thereby acquires the force of statute law. By-laws made under the Charter and Pharmacy Act, which must be approved by a principal | Secretary of State (altered in 1868 to the Privy Council), after due promulgation, have also the force of statute law. That being so, any question as to interpretation or powers or functions can only be determined by the public judica. tories established by Parliament. Some years prior to 1868 much public alarm was caused by a series of lamentable criminal and accidental poisoning fatalities. As usual, Parliament proposed to check the evil by imposing purely mechanical restrictions. The Society strongly insisted that the only safe foundation for poison legislation was the education of the vendor. This principle was ultimately embodied in the Pharmacy Act, 1868. The purpose of that Act is indicated in the words: "It is expedient for the safety of the public that persons known as chemists and druggists should possess a competent practical knowledge of their business." Logically it should have limited, as in Ireland since 1875, the dispensing of medicines to

Retrograde Legislation.

The Business of a Chemist.

No doubt the Charter and Pharmacy Acts also bad in view the statutory acknowledgment and protection of the pharmaceutical practitioner against the attempts of the apothecaries and medical practitioners to prevent chemists and druggists practising as dispensers of physicians' prescriptions and vendors of medicines and simple remedies, and the right of the community to obtain medical supplies without any physician's prescription. This latter point came up very sharply in connection with the Military Service Acts and the exemption of men indispensable for maintaining an adequate pharmaceutical service. An attempt was made to insist that the only national service for which a pharmacist could be exempted was the dispensing of written prescriptions. This contention was strenuously opposed by the Society and Since 1868 the pharmacist in the statutory defeated. sense is a person not limited to the vending of medicines or medical or surgical appliances, but he holds the only statutory British qualification for the dispensing of all The medicines and the retail vending of all poisons. business of a chemist and druggist, in the sense of the Charter and Pharmacy Acts, is therefore very compreIt therefore follows that the Charter powers, hensive. functions, and duties of the Pharmaceutical Society, as now defined by Parliament, to whom the Society is responsible through the Privy Council, are very wide and may be summarised as follows:

1. Education and technical and scientific training. The advancement of chemical and pharmaceutical knowledge by means of schools. lectures. meetings, museums, libraries, books, laboratories, scientific research, endow. ments, prizes, and scholarships.

2. Professional qualification and registration and the protection of professional titles. This includes reciprocity within the Empire or with foreign States.

3. Professional rights, privileges, and obligations in the dispensing of medicines and in the supply or vending of poisons under the Pharmacy Acts, National Health Insurance Acts, Defence of the Realm Act, Venereal Disease Act, Arsenic Act, Poisoned Flesh Prohibition

Act, Poisoned Grain Prohibition Acts, Drugging of Animals Act, Sale of Intoxicants Regulations, or any other legislative enactment affecting the supply of medicinal substances, or the supply of poisons for domestic, industrial, or technical purposes, or as antiseptic or fungicides, or the vending of potent dangerous chemical substances, or the making, extending, modifying, or cancelling of enactments or Orders in Council bearing on these matters.

4. All conditions, legislative or otherwise, affecting the professional practice of pharmacy in retail pharmacies, in hospitals or dispensaries, or in the Army or Navy or Mercantile Marine. This would include the recognition, representation, and status of pharmacists under the National Health Insurance Acts, and also all questions affecting mobilisation of pharmacists for naval or military duty, and the maintenance of an adequate pharmaceutical service for insured as well as uninsured persons.

5. All questions relating to the supply of medicines or medical or surgical appliances or antiseptics or disinfectants coming within the scope of a Ministry of Public Health. This may be of very vital importance owing to the evident tendency towards the nationalisation of medical and pharmaceutical services.

6. Questions relating to the use of alcohol or other substances for medical purposes and all questions as to Customs and Excise Regulations affecting the practice of pharmacy.

7. Questions relating to the Medicine Stamp Acts, the Explosive Substances Act, or other enactments affecting the supplying, transport, or storage of medicines, or medical or surgical appliances or poisons.

8. Questions relating to the compilation and publication of the British Pharmacopoeia, the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, and all matters relating to the fixing of standards and formulæ for drugs and medicinal preparations. The Society has also to be consulted by Government Departments in framing any regulations affecting the practice of pharmacy or the vending of poisons.

9. The professional rights and privileges of pharmacists in supplying to the public, according to recognised and universal custom, the medicinal substances and appliances in which they deal, and the rights of the public to obtain such medicinal substances and appliances. The Profiteering Act and the Shops Acts may conveniently be included in this section.

10. All other questions relating to the foregoing matters which belong distinctively to the practice of pharmacy or the vending of poisons and the securing of the safety of the public in connection therewith. This would include disciplinary powers over all registered pharmacists.

11. Recognition of the Society as the sole statutory representative of British pharmacy and those engaged in the practice thereof, and qualified to advise the Government and any public authority on all matters relating to the supply and distribution of medicines and medical and surgical appliances and poisons and the dispensing of physicians' prescriptions, and having authority to administer the Pharmaceutical Poisons Acts.

12. All matters relating to the benevolent fund or any other matters distinctly specified in the Charter or Pharmacy Acts of necessary for carrying out any objects so specified.

It will be realised that this summary of matters which clearly come within the objects of the Society as expressed in the Charter and Pharmacy Acts means a very great amount of multifarious duties and responsibilities, constantly requiring the thought and time and labour of the Society's Council and staff. The Charter and Pharmacy Acts make it imperatively necessary that all these matters shall be faithfully attended to. But there are innumerable matters beyond all these which are continuously receiving attention and which occupy a large amount of the time of the Council and the staff. No member of the Society applying for information or help or guidance is ever met with the objection that what he wants is not within the Charter or Pharmacy Acts.

The rest of the paper dealt with the functions of outside bodies, such as the Proprietary Articles Trade Association and the Chemists' Defence Association, and deal specifically with the local organisation of the Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland.-Chemist and Druggist.

PRODUCTION AND

EXPORTATION OF MERCURY IN SPAIN.

By Trade Commissioner W. M. STRACHAN, Madrid.

MERCURY is produced in the Provinces of Ciudad Real, Granada, and Oviedo, but the most important mines are those of Ciudal Real, which are located at Almaden and cover a surface of 485,187 acres. They are owned and operated by the state.

The Estadistica Minera de España contains some interesting statistics as to the cost of operation of the Almaden mines during the year 1917. In this year excavations were made at 300 sites, at which 2765 cubic metres were excavated at a total labour cost of 97,333 dols. The average daily wage paid was 2.50 dols. The average labour cost per cubic metre was 35.20 dols. The archwork, solid walls, and masonry erected for the interior support of the mines cost, for materials and labour including transportation, timbers used for bracing galleries and shafts, &c., a total of 155,477 dols. Shop expenses for work not let out by contract amounted to 15,931 dols. the various articles classed as accessories cost 81,658 dols., and labour not otherwise specified added 44,498 dols. to the expense.

For labour used in distillation during 1917 the expenditure was 76,132 dols., and for supplies 82,148 dols. Ten pairs of Bustamente sub-liming furnaces, two CormakSpirek continuous-movement furnaces for fine materials, and three double-pan furnaces of the same system for coarse ores were employed. In the Bustamente furnaces 7550 tons of mineral were treated, from which were produced 984,486 pounds of mercury. In the Spirek system 688,795 pounds of mercury were produced from 5616 tons of ore.

Output and Quantities Exported.-The ore on hand at the beginning of 1918 amounted to 60,225 short tons, and the production during the year was 11,013, making a total of 71.238 tons. Minerals treated during the year totaled 13,166 tons, yielding 9117 tons of mercury; thus the metal content was 6.93 per cent.

The exports of mercury from Spain for the year 1908 to 1916, inclusive, were

Jan. 9, 1920

TRADE IN SOUTH CHINA.

SWATOW is a city with a population estimated at about 80,000, and has few local industries, but is of importance as the seaport for a very rich and thickly-populated agricultural district, having an excellent system of communications by means of inland waterways.

In the volume of its trade it comes eighth in the list of Chinese ports, the total for last year amounting to over 50.000,000 Haikwan taels. A remarkable feature of the trade of the port is the great preponderance of imports over exports, the value of the former amounting to almost 75 per cent of the total, and it is generally held that the balance of trade must be redressed by the large sums remitted annually to this district by Chinese settlers in foreign countries.

Industries.-There are no large manufacturing estab lishments in the port itself or in the district for which it serves as the outlet, but various native industries provide employment for a considerable section of the population. One of the principal industries is the manufacture of a very coarse type of paper of which large quantities are shipped | to Singapore and Bangkok, and amongst other important trades are sugar-making, oil-crushing, and the preparation of salted vegetables. A sugar-mill was erected here some years ago by a foreign firm, but owing to the growing competition of Formosan and Java sugars it was found impossible to work it, and it has recently been entirely dismantled.

There are two fruit-canning establishments doing a fairly large business, and a proportion of their output is shipped to the Straits Settlements and other countries where Chinese settlers are numerous, but the sanitary conditions existing in these factories are not such as to commend the products to European consumers.

There is also a small sock-knitting factory using American machines operated by steam-power, which, it appears, has proved very successful, especially since the boycot of Japanese goods has been in operation.

Local Textile Industries.-The manufacture of cotton cloth on native hand-looms is a thriving industry throughout the district, and, in addition to the coarse cloth known as "Nankeen," yarn dyed piece-goods of excellent quality are now being produced in considerable quantities. For the coarsest type of cloth the yarns are mainly of Indian origin, the finer counts coming from Shanghai and Japan. A British firm at Swatow has devoted a good deal of attention to this industry, introducing patterns from Japan and the United Kingdom, and suggesting improvements in the method of manufacture, and a though the cloths naturally lack the "finish" of Manchester goods, they compare very favourably in every other respect with the foreign product. Originally all the looms came from Japan, but recently they have mostly been manufactured locally at about a tenth of the cost of the imported machines. The cost of manufacture is extremely low, weavers receiving little more than a dollar a month in addition to their food.

footing in this market, and to familiarise Chinese buyers with the British product before the arrival of new stocks of German dyes renders competition still more difficult. Other local industries are the manufacture of grasscloth, pewter, a low-grade soap, and coarse glassware. Vegetable Oils. The extraction of vegetable oils (ground nut, pea, wood, tea, &c.), which are the products of most interest to foreign exporters, is effected entirely by native methods, the common Chinese wooden press operated by driving in a series of wedges being invariably employed. The manager of a British firm, which, besides buying the output of various small Chinese concerns, also produces a considerable quantity of ground-nut oil in its own premises, gave it as his opinion that this very primitive native method was not only the most effective in securing the maximum yield of oil, but was also more economical than any form of mechanical press, the cost of labour being extremly low.

In developing its export business at Swatow the firm above referred to has adopted a policy which deserves the careful consideration of British exporters in other parts of China. They have endeavoured to dispense as far as possible not merely with the services of a compradore, but also with all unnecessary brokers and middlemen, and instead of purchasing their oils in large quantities from dealers established in Swatow, they send Chinese representatives to buy up the output of some of the innumerable small oil presses established in every village and country town.

The system naturally demands special qualifications in the men conducting the business. It involves much additional work and organisation, and is calculated to meet with opposition from various vested interests, but in endeavouring to reach the actual sources of production and to eliminate unnecessary commissions, it would seem to be the most logical method of developing the natural resources of the country, and it also tends to check the practice of adulteration, for which the dealers are mainly responsible.

It is naturally impossible to say how far the system would be applicable to other trades and other localities, but in the particular instance referred to the firm concerned appears to be well satisfied with the success of its experiment. -Board of Trade Journal.

BOARD OF TRADE ANNOUNCEMENT.

THE NON-FERROUS MINING COMMITTEE. THE Committee appointed by the Board of Trade to inquire into non-ferrous mining recently adjourned for the vacation, after having examined a number of witnesses on Lead and Zinc Mining. Its meetings were resumed under the Chairmanship of Mr. H. B. Betterton, M.P., on January 6, 1920.

Mines in the Halkyn District of Flintshire were repre

Dyes Wanted.-German dyes are still being used, although stocks must now be extremely low and prices are ten times higher than before the war. American dyes are gradually being introduced, but the Chinese do not appear to regard them with much favour, and the manager of one weaving establishment stated that in order to obtain the desired results he found it necessary to add a proportion of German colours.

In this connection it must be regarded as most regret able that British manufacturers have as yet made no serious effort to introduce their dyes to the Chinese market. Even if conditions are such that no very considerable quantities of British dyes are yet available for export, it would appear to be highly desirable that sufficient supplies should be furnished to secure some slight

the East Halkyn Mining Company; Mr. Walter Conway, Secretary of the North Hendre Lead Mining Company; and Mr. J L. Francis, of the firm of Matthew Francis and Son, Managers of the South Halkyn Mines and Engineers to the Halkyn District Mines Drainage Company. They stated that the mines in the district were now worked down to, or below, the level of the existing drainage tunnel, and they were of the opinion that the completion of the new sea level tunnel was essential if mining was to continue in the district, and that State aid could usefully be given to that end. They favoured pumping at the North Hendre, Llynypandy, and Sonth Halkyn mines, under a scheme, inaugurated and nearly completed during the war with the financial assistance of the Ministry of Munitions, as the tunnel could then be driven from several points of attack to the Iron Shaft in two and a half years; while if it were driven from one