“But the worst mistake of all is to look after the details of management in Great Britain. Efficiency is impossible under those conditions. The management must be on the spot. Put in a man with the requisite knowledge and character and give him a free hand. If his work prove unsatisfactory, dismiss him and get somebody else; but so long as he is manager let him act as such. Have a home man if you like as consulting engineer. Let him go out and decide the general plan of development; but give the local manager a free hand in carrying out the campaign. Let the consulting engineer inspect his work, and learn his reasons for having run this cross-cut and that drift; let the consulting engineer decide whether he is doing well or ill, whether he is saving money or wasting it, whether he should be retained or dismissed; but do not relieve the local manager of responsibility. Do not have him work on cabled instructions based on cabled reports and office maps, and then expect efficient management and a successful mine. If he needs assistance and advice he needs them at the mine, and that is where he should have them.” Those words, coming from the foremost Government geologist of Canada, carry great weight; and I hope Mr. Brock’s counsel will be taken to heart by the City of London. And now—not to close this chapter in a minor key—I will glance briefly at Canada’s mineral production in 1910. It represented a value of £25,000,000, or rather more than a 14 per cent. advance on the figures for the previous year. Coal occupied the premier place, with a value of, approximately, £6,000,000. Silver came next (£3,420,000), while pig iron, nickel and gold each yielded a total in excess of £2,000,000. They were succeeded in the scale of value by copper and asbestos. CHAPTER XIV NEW SASKATCHEWAN The story of modern Canada is a story of amazing mistakes and delightful discoveries. At every stage of development popular surmise has been made to look foolish by the accomplished fact. “The statesman is alive who prophesied that if a railway were ever built around Lake Superior it would not earn enough money to buy axle grease.” So I was informed by Mr. Arthur Hawkes, the genial publicist, who added: “On my first visit to Canada in 1885 I heard an Ontario man warning emigrants against going so far into the wilds as Winnipeg.”