Oil in Britain The regulations under which prospecting for oil
in Great Britain may be begun and mining operations undertaken have now been issued by the Board of, Trade and laid on the Table of the Houses of Parliament. Licences must be taken out both for prospecting and mining in prescribed areas ; and the licensees, having satisfied the authorities and made their own arrangements With the land-owners, will pay royalties to the State,. and be required to conform with various conditions laid down. The evils which have resulted in the case of coal- mining from multiple ownership of the mining royalties. will be avoided. The State, as the owner in the last resort, though not the actual operator, can control the situation throughout, and avert the waste of divergent competing interests operating in adjacent areas. It is a wise provision that a maximum area for a mining licence may be as large as 100 square miles ; and, no doubt, if desirable, the same concern might operate over a larger area with more than one licence.
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