The Mikado's Empire/Catatan dan Apendiks/Pertambangan dan Sumber Daya Mineral

MINES AND MINERAL RESOURCES.

BY far the best statements of the mineral wealth of Japan is presented in the Report of Mr. F. R. Plunkett, of the British Legation, to Sir Harry Parkes, and published in The Japan Weekly Mail of January 27th, 1876. Most of the matter »iven below is from official data. "In almost every portion of Japan are found ores of some kind, and there is scarcely a district in which there are not traces of mines having been worked. Most of these, however, are abandoned, or worked in a very slovenly manner." The methods still pursued are, with few exceptions, the same as those followed in ancient times. Mines are still attacked by adits. The Japanese hardly ever sink a shaft ; and as the water gains upon the miners, the mine is abandoned. No mines can be worked without special license of the Government, and foreigners are excluded from any and all participation in the mining industry of the country. No foreigner can hold a share in a mine, nor lend money on the security of a mine. Foreigners may, however, be employed as engineers, and a number are already in such employment.

The mining laws of Japan are based on those of Prussia and Spain. Twenty- three foreigners, mostly Europeans, the superintendent being Mr. H. Godfrey, are in the service of the Mining Department ; and a number of natives have begun to study the modern systems of engineering, both practically at home, in America and Europe, and in the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokio.

The right to work a mine does not belong to the owner of the soil ; for in Ja- pan possession of the surface does not carry with it the right to the mineral wealth below. That belongs by law to the Government, which exacts from the worker of the ores a varying royalty, and a surface rent of one yen per eighteen thousand square feet, for all mines except iron and coal, which pay half the sum. The ordinary land tax is also charged to the miner.

The Dutch and Portuguese in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries exported from Japan precious metals as follows :

By the Portuguese, gold and silver £59,500,000

By the Dutch— gold, .£15,482,250 ; silver, £28,000,000 43,482,000

Nearly £103,000,000, or $500,000,000.

From 1609 to 1858, 206,253 tons of copper were exported by the Dutch. The yearly average of Dutch trade at D&himit was £660,000.

Gold was first discovered in Japan A.D. 749. As Japan was closed to the world, the gold remained in the country, and augmented every year. Its abundance was thus no test of the relative wealth of the country. The relative value of gold to silver was, until 1860, as 6 to 1. Japan seems to be fairly well, but not richly, pro- vided with mineral wealth. Below are tables from Mr. Plunkett's Report, which relates only to Hondo; Kiushiu, and Shikoku.

The total coal production of Japan is thus put down at 390,000 tons, of which no less than 315,067 tons come from the consular district of Nagasaki.

The total exportation of coal from Nagasaki has increased in a wonderful pro- portion of late years ; for whereas in 1866 it was only 10,185 tons, and in 1867 36,170 tons, it amounted in 1870 to 56,200 tons; 1871, to 102,700 tons; 1872, to 137,499 tons.

Near Tokio there is a coal field thirty miles long by se^en and a half miles wide. In Kii and in Echigo are also large coal fields. For lack of good roads, these are nearly useless. A geological survey of Japan has not yet been made, and the Government does not yet possess a correct map of the empire. In 1874, 107,243 gallons of excellent petroleum were produced. With American methods of drilling, pumping, and refinery, the yield and area of trial are increasing.

Copper is of very good quality, and found in numberless places. Ordinary ores yield from two and a half to twelve per cent, pure metal, always free from anti- mony and arsenic. In 1874, two hundred mines turned out only three thousand tons. Foreign machinery and methods would in all probability greatly increase this yield. Ozaka is the chief d^pot for copper. In the export of copper, old idols, bells, Buddhas, etc., etc., figure largely.

In 1874, 21,666 pounds of silver, 833 pounds of gold, were produced in Japan from 346 silver and 89 gold mines. At four places, foreign engineers work the mines. The Sado mines, it is said by a traveler to that island, cost $75,000 to work them in one year (1874), but produce only $60,000 worth of gold and silver.

NOTES AND APPENDICES,

Probably the expense of Improved machinery and tram-ways was not taken Into account. The cost of production of gold is $2 for every 58| grains, and for silver $96 for 8$ pounds.

Next to coal, iron is most commonly fonnd in many varieties of ore. In Hita- chi, a bed of iron-stone, eighteen to eight feet in thickness, is worked by English engineers with blast furnaces. Magnetic iron ore is very abundant; heretofore the cost of production of this ore has been nine dollars per ton. The total out- put in Japan in 1873 was but three thousand tons. The future yield may be vast- ly increased. Lead is found in twenty provinces, but only one hundred and eighty-five tons were produced in 1874. In 1873, $84,693 worth of lead was im- ported from abroad. The tin mines in Satsuma, Bungo, and Suwd are not worked. Quicksilver in Hizcn and Rikuchiu await miners. Sulphur is abundant, but most of that mined comes from AwomorL

THE HOKKAIDO.

The geological rcconnoissances and surveys of Yezo have been under the su- pervision of American engineers. Professors Blake and R. Pumpelly, who were engaged for one year by the bakufu, visited Yezo in 1862. (See "Across America and Asia," by R. Pumpelly, New York : Leypoldt & Holt.) They made a re- port, and introduced blasting and some other improvements. In 1871, Thomas Antisell, M.D., and, in 1873, Professor Benjamin J. Lyman, and Henry 8. Munroe, E.M.,all on the staff of the Department of the Development of Yezo, made exam- inations. From their reports, coal and iron sand seem to be abundant, well dis- tributed, and of fair quality; gold and silver occur in small quantities; copper, zinc, and lead are found, but not in rich deposits. Petroleum issues in a few places. The result of their labors seems to show that Yezo is poor in mineral wealth, except iron and coal, in which it is very rich. The outcome of the high- ly creditable labors of these gentlemen will be a vast saving to the Japanese of money for useless mining. From the nature of the case, the limited time, and small number of the staff, the greater part of the interior of Yezo and the Kurile Islands is as yet unexplored. For maps, reports, etc., see "Reports of General Capron and his Foreign Assistants," Tokio, 1875. The undoubted wealth of the Hokkaido is in timber, .fisheries, furs, and agricultural products.