Summary: THE thirteenth annual report of the Secretary for Mines for the year 1933 from the Mines Department, which includes as usual the annual report of the Chief Inspector of Mines, has recently been issued (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1934. 3s. Qd. net). The most important statement in this report is to be found in a review of the British coal-mining industry, which states that “Signs of an improvement in the position of the British coal-mining industry were evident in the latter part of 1933”. This is a very satisfactory statement as showing that the coal production of the country is at last recovering from the serious slump that has affected it for so long. It must not, however, be supposed that all the difficulties have been over come, because the report goes on to state that work at the pits was most irregular and that the prices of British coal were slightly lower than in the previous year. It is shown that various trade agreements made with different Governments of Europe have resulted upon the whole in an advantage to the coal trade of Great Britain. It is satisfactory to find that the utilisation of coal and the products derived from it are on the increase, and that serious attention is being given to the question of the use of com pressed gas for motors. The statement, though now old, that during November 1933 the Secretary for Mines opened the first public filling station for vehicles using compressed gas, is repeated in the t report, and it is decidedly interesting to have it thus authoritatively stated. It is obvious from the report that the mining of iron improved during 1933, the increase in the output being more marked in the second half of the year than in the first, as in the case of coal. The remainder of the report of the Secretary for Mines is not of great scientific import ance, although his summary of the results obtained in the various testing stations is of a certain amount of public interest. The report of the Chief Inspector of Mines is, as usual, mainly of importance for the numerous tables which it presents.