Our Economic Dependence on Mining

SIR NEWTON MOORE was introduced by the President of the Empire Club, LIEUT.-COLONEL GEORGE A. DREW. SIR NEWTON MOORE: Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen: May I first preface my remarks by expressing my appreciation of the compliment paid me today in asking me to address this joint meeting of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the Empire Club, more especially as it gives me the opportunity of speaking before these very distinguished men interested in mining, and at the same time, the honour is accentuated by the fact that we have at this head table two very distinguished politicians. On the one hand we have Mr. Gordon, Minister of Mines for the Dominion whom I have had many opportunities of getting in touch with and who possibly thinks that I am somewhat of a nuisance. On the other hand is Mr. McCrea whom I haven't seen for some years but I well remember that during his visit to England some ten years ago I had the opportunity of -being present on an occasion when he gave an interesting address on the mining possibilities of Ontario and I think it wouldn't do any harm if he repeated that visit at the present time in view of the prominent part that gold mining is playing in the world.

Now, Gentlemen, the Annual Meetings of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy are traditionally, I am informed, happy occasions of reunion, which old friends of the class-room, of field work, and mine and mill look forward to with keen anticipation.

On this occasion, as has been explained by your Chairman, your gathering is a joint one of the Empire Club of Canada and the Institute. It gives me special pleasure, therefore, apart from the honour you have done me in asking me to address you at this luncheon, to join with you in this hour of relaxation, as one who has filled administrative positions, and has had long association with mining enterprises in the Dominions and England.

My early training as a surveyor in Western Australia, and my later participation as Premier of that State in: opening up the country by provision of light railways which served miners and agriculturists in pioneer days, has given me a keen appreciation of the sequence in national development of the explorer and surveyor, the prospector and miner, the railway builders and the farmer.

It was my privilege as a youngster to fix the site for the shaft for the first coal mine in that country, as well as to locate, when in the Survey Department, Bayleys find from which discovery the development of the great gold fields of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie followed. Little did I think when I gazed into that little hole in the ground some eighteen inches deep and from which gold to the value of £50,000 had already been extracted, that I was at the birth of an industry which up to date has produced £180,000,000 of gold and which under the stimulating influence of the increased price of gold plus the exchange premium bids promise of becoming once again one of the leaders in the gold producing countries of the Empire.

The sequence of the development of a new country is appreciated in such a company as we have today, and in Toronto, and to members of the Institute, I need only instance the- building of the Temiskaming & Northern Ontario Railway through your northern clay belt as a classic Canadian example.

It was my privilege in 1930, after an absence of twenty years, to revisit my native land of Western Australia and to see the wonderful development that had taken place in the wheat areas during that period, and to note the well-built substantial township centres of business activity where I remember only tiny hamlets. In 1904, when I entered Parliament in Perth, we were importing foodstuffs, and now some 45 million bushels of wheat is available for export.

The differences of climate do not permit of exact comparison insofar as agricultural development is concerned, but I am told that the full agricultural settlement that comes last in the sequence of colonization is well under way along the line of the T. & N. O. Railway. The labours of the prospector have national repercussions that exceed the dreams of the most optimistic of that optimistic race to whom we are all so greatly indebted, the hardy pioneer and prospector.

For example, one of the largest copper producing mines of this country which members of the Empire Mining Congress saw in 1927 just emerging from the original wilderness' .now consumes annually 100,000 tons of Nova Scotia coal, thus demonstrating how activity in one branch of mining reacts upon and stimulates another.

Your President-Elect, Mr. Balmer Neilly, in his own person typifies the energizing influences-chiefly emanating from your City of Toronto--that have created virtually a new Empire in Northern Ontario, the extension of which one is witnessing today as far as the Great Bear Lake and within the Arctic Circle itself.

It is superfluous-in addressing an audience of miners and students of Empire policies-to enlarge upon the imperial significance of mining, but perhaps as an old "digger" and as a confrere, you will permit me to refer to the Canadian industry that it is my task to direct and to link up in their significant national combination, the mining of iron ore, flux and coal, steel manufacture, and the mining of gold,, silver and base metals that especially interests you in New and Old Ontario and along your borders in Quebec and Manitoba.

It is not necessary to enter into the ancient controversy of emulation as to whether pride of place in national importance shall go to Tubal Cain, or Abel, to the miner or the farmer. As this is part of a day off for miners, we may be excused if we blow our own horn a little, as an unaccustomed exercise.

If any nation--having natural resources of its own of gold and silver, metals, coal, fluxes and ores of iron--permits the importation of such natural resources, to the detriment of its own miners, and to the prevention of use of its own resources, it may exercise its choice and justify that choice on the grounds of "cheapness", but -and this is a very pregnant "but"-it cannot continue as a nation, dependent upon other nations, and yet free to climb the heights of nationhood for its sons, and its sons' sons.

Canada, like all other nations, is fighting hard to maintain her solvency, to assure the future of her young citizens and to keep their fathers out of the bread-line. But where would the Canadian trade balance stand, what would be the future of our boys and girls, what would be the extent of national relief required in Canada to meet the poverty that accompanies lack of employment, if out of Canadian soil no coal was mined, no silver or gold, and no base metals-if the coal of Nova Scotia were not produced to smelt the iron ores from our neighbour and sister people in Newfoundland--if the credit of Canada had not been buttressed by the gold output of Canadian mines? We can thank her mineral output very largely for Canada's solvency, for the comparative comfort of her people, but we would be more certain of solvency and our people would be more assured of their means of livelihood were our mineral output-and more especially our coal output-nearer to the developed capacity of Canadian mines, and were our importations of minerals from abroad not so uneconomically and quite unnecessarily large.

For a number of years past the value of coal and iron products imported into Canada has approximated to and in some years has very much exceeded the value of Canadian mineral production. The Deputy Minister of Mines, Dr. Camsell, has on many occasions rightly emphasized the unsatisfactory and dangerous position in which such dependence upon outside sources places Canada. In his presidential address to the Engineering Institute of Canada, a few weeks ago, Dr. Camsell stated that "whatever may be the course of future development, it is a fact that Canada today fails by a very wide margin to meet her own needs either of coal, or of iron, or of crude petroleum".

The enterprise which is my main responsibility, and an onerous one, is the only one in Canada that mines both coal and iron; or that uses British raw materials in making iron and steel; namely,, coal from Nova Scotia and iron ore from Wavana, probably, on competent authority, "the largest single reserve of high-grade iron-ore in the world."

I very gratefully take this opportunity to testify to the help that has been given by the Federal Government by transportation subventions, to extend the area of distribution of Nova Scotia coal. This assistance has been very welcome for two good reasons. First, it has kept coalmining in Nova Scotia from collapse; and secondly, it has demonstrated the growing determination of the Federal Government to promote the use of Canadian coal in Canada which determination reflects precisely, I make bold to believe, the temper of the Canadian people.

I also take this occasion as an opportunity to express the appreciation of the coal-miners of Nova Scotia of the quick apprehension shown by the people of Ontario of the mutual advantages in, a business way that accompany reciprocity between them and the manufacturers of Ontario in interchange of the products of labour, and of the sympathetic attitude extended to our salesmen.

Coal mining in Nova Scotia-and more especially in the Sydney area-is not a growth of yesterday. It is the oldest mining industry in Canada. Were the annual records of the value of the products of the mine in Canada reduced by subtraction of the value of the coal of Nova Scotia there would have been little left to record up to the end of the last century. The industries and transportation and the purchasing ability of the Maritime Provinces and Quebec have depended in very substantial measure upon the mining of coal in Nova Scotia, extending back now for well over a century. Perhaps it is news to some to know that coal from Isle Royal, Cape Breton,, supplied the Royal Forges of France in 1687.

Canadian history would have trended very differently had we not a source of coal supply in the Maritimes. The coal mining industry has persisted, in spite of neglect and frequent discouragement, because of its intrinsic value to a federated Canada, because Canada cannot live without it, and continue to be the Canada we hope for; self-sustaining and economically healthy in each province because of mutual interdependence, mutual trade interchange and full use within our borders of our own natural resources.

Mining, Gentlemen, is not a monotonous occupation. Gold, as we have so often been told is "where you find it." Which means that gold exists where it has not yet been found. Which reminds me that a friend of mine, Sir John Kirwan, in addressing an audience of mining men in London last month said

"One of the most remarkable things is that today, after so many years of what used to be termed close prospecting, gold is being discovered where it should not have been possible to miss finding it.

"The Eagle Nugget which was sold for £6,600, and was one of the largest pieces of gold ever found in the world, was unearthed by a boy in 1931 within eighteen inches of the surface at Larkinville. Thousands of men had been prospecting in that area, and carts had been to and fro over it in search of firewood."

In another district, Southern Cross, one of the oldest goldfields in Western Australia a new and rich discovery was found at the back of a hotel in the Main Street.

The world which had gone on steadily increasing its paper currency has been rudely awakended to the real value of gold. The demand for it has far exceeded the available supply. Gold was never before in so great a demand. There is no commodity in the world today that is so much prized by nations and individuals as gold. No matter whether a nation be on the gold standard or off it, it prizes gold. Gold is the only commodity that nowadays cannot be over-produced. There is an ever ready market for it at a price that has risen in terms of sterling from £4-50 to over £6 an ounce.

The chief gold producing mines of the world are within the Empire and the Empire's gold capacity is practically inexhaustible and Canada now is the second greatest producer in the world. The fact cannot be too frequently emphasized that the Empire annually produces some 72 percent of the world's gold production. In other words, the Empire produces very considerably more than twice the amount of gold annually produced by the rest of the world.

In conclusion, I believe we are only at the beginning of a huge gold mining revival throughout the Empire but capital is required to develop our great auriferous resources. Substantial success in gold production will facilitate the meeting of government financial commitments that must be ultimately met in gold. It will assist an improved balance of trade. It will supplement the stocks of gold supporting the paper currency. It will also increase employment. Gold mining is capable of absorbing thousands of surplus workers, reviving numerous trades and industries dependent upon mining activity, and assisting in decentralising excessive populations in capital cities.

Add, Gentlemen, to gold, coal; and to coal, iron; and permit, nay more, press the fuller development of these natural resources from Canadian mines, and you have the rock-ribbed base, the fundamentals of a Canada where our young men may see visions, with hope of fulfillment, sufficient to justify our fondest dreams. (Applause.)

COLONEL DREW: Before expressing the appreciation of this meeting to Sir Newton Moore for coming here today, I know we would all be very pleased to hear any remarks that the Honourable Mr. Gordon feels that he can give to a joint meeting of this nature, representing those primarily interested in mining and metallurgy and those interested in the problems of Empire. (Applause.)

The HON. W. A. GORDON: It was kind, indeed, of you to afford me an opportunity to visit you here today and meet you all in a gathering such as this. I won't say much because you don't expect me to say much and I don't want to disappoint you.

It was a great pleasure to me to have become acquainted with our guest speaker-Sir Newton Moore. He has undertaken the direct control of a huge industry in the Maritime Provinces. It will require a man of great capacity and great understanding and it will also require the assistance of many of us in order that his work in building up and making that great industry is the success it should be. Unfortunately, and I say this with a degree of diffidence, the Infinite Being, when he laid down the geography of the world, apparently left out of consideration the poor weaknesses of us mortals when we laid down our political boundaries, and our resources do not conform to the barriers that we, ourselves, have set up by reason of those boundaries and the task, or one of the tasks, that men engaged in mining and the development of other natural resources have to meet--a task of their own making--is to overcome the geographical boundaries and they are great in Canada. That is one of the tasks that our guest speaker, Sir Newton Moore, is confronted with at the present time. It is so easy to say that Canada has a great natural resource in its coal deposit, and to many who have only casually examined the subject, the wonder is why we should import coal when we have such an abundance.. Of course you men who are interested in mining, and others who are not, recognize and understand that our coal deposits are at the supreme ends of our political boundaries and the coal consuming areas are in the center--that is in the industrial organization of the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, speaking generally.

To overcome those circumstances is one of the tasks that confronts our guest speaker and those working with him in that industry and which also confronts those interested in the coal industry in Western Canada. They can't overcome them alone. They must have associated with their efforts a very keen appreciation by the people of this country of the difficulties that confront that industry and to the extent that assistance can be lent to those who are directing that industry, it must be helped.

I am quite conscious of the fact-I am certain that Sir Newton Moore is also-that there are sections of Canada at the present time, at least, that can not be served with coal fuel from Canadian mines, but that is one of the problems that we can eliminate in a certain measure by that degree of co-operation which I' think inspires us all from a Canadian standpoint at a time like this.

I don't want, Mr. President, to occupy any more time in saying these few words to you because it was not intended that I should speak at all. I only repeat that I am so glad to be here at a joint meeting of the Empire Club and of the members of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. I see among you so many friends that I haven't my usual diffidence in saying a few words in public which usually accompanies any pronouncement by me. (Applause.)

The HONOURABLE CHARLES MCCREA, at the request of the President of the Empire Club, thanked the speaker of the day.