15. Under the head of Survey and Lands Department, it will be proper to glance at the alterations in the Land and Mineral Regulations, which have offered increased inducements and facilities for cultivation and occupation, and which have considerably promoted mining enterprise. Gold Mining Regulations have been also prepared and are ready for issue, should occasion, as is likely, render them requisite. I willingly acknowledge the assistance I have received from Mr. M. Fraser, the Surveyor-General and Commissioner of Crown Lands, who has had much experience in New Zealand, for the services he has rendered in all these matters. 16. The mineral riches of this colony are very great. I have never doubted but that they would ultimately become a main source of its advancement. All the different kinds of auriferous quartz known in other colonies are found abundantly in various parts of this--the question of payable gold is, as I have long since reported, simply a question of time. After many efforts, I at last, in 1873, obtained a vote for prospecting, and the results are most promising, the fact of the existence of rich auriferous quartz being now established. We shall immediately be in a position to crush specimen consignments of quartz by a Government steam-crusher, and I doubt not but that, if followed up, the results will be most important. But gold is not the only nor perhaps the most important of the minerals possessed by West Australia. The colony is extraordinarily rich in lead, silver, copper, iron, plumbago, and many other minerals are found in various localities, and indications of coal and petroleum are not wanting--what IS wanting, is energy and enterprise to develop these riches, and that energy and enterprise is being attracted chiefly from Victoria, first by means of concessions that I was enabled to make, and now by the reports of the new comers to their friends. I made a small concession to a smelting company: and another, and also an iron mining company, is in the field.