MINERALS

32%

district of the province. For more than fifty years attention
 has been bestowed on the seams that are found in
Arakan, Tenasserim, Pegu, and Upper Burma, but without
any great profit to explorers. A colliery has been established
 at Letkonbin (or Lek-ope-bin) in Upper Burma
which is within 5 miles of the Irawadi, and which will
certainly prove to be of commercial value ; but the flooding
 of the mines reduced the output from 23,000 tons
in 1896 to 10,000 last year. New workings have now
deen commenced. and a superior quality of coal is being
raised.
But Burma (especially Upper Burma) must be
regarded at present as in the initial stages of development
 so far as coal possibilities are concerned, and
the value of workable seams which will undoubtedly
be found in future must largely depend on facilities of
transport and railway extension.
It is curious that in the matter of salt, as of coal-supply,
India, although possessed of large resources, is still dependent
 to a certain extent on importation. Cheshire
salt still supplies the local markets in Bengal, although
the production of salt by the evaporation of sea water
is largely carried on along the coast districts of Eastern
india. Of all the mineral productions of India that of
salt is of greatest economic importance, The revenue
derived from salt amounts to nearly eight millions per
annum, and the tax imposed upon salt is the only tax
which directly affects the masses of the people of India.
Special legislation in order to equalise this tax, and to
insure a fair distribution of it throughout the length and
breadth of British dominions, has been constantly necessary.
 There was a time (Lord Lytton's time) when a
huge artificial barrier stretched through India and offered
a stout physical obstacle to trade and traffic of all sorts
in the interest of the salt duties. This, happily, has been
removed, and no artificial salt barriers of any great extent
now exist ; but changes are constantly necessary in the
application of Government monopolies to meet the
constant changes in the sources of supply, and the salt