WASTED IN MINING.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 406, 18 February 1904, Page 6

WASTED IN MINING.

Per,Cent, of <*• Total j Output of KußlisU sUne« '

"It has Jjeen., f compute j that-*nors-than 50,000,008 .tons-of ooal ; are wasted every year in the mine." u So said J. Stephen Jeans in address-, - j reports _ the. London,„ Tel- j graph." This'Tvaste is that mainly of • small «soal, -and iej ofcourse, qtiite in- j dependent of the reckless and .useless | consumptibn that ,goes, on in nearly j and. .at- every j furnace. 0 Even this huge .figure is < less than; it used to be, for,. with the : general adoption of coal washing, plants, of. produqers i capable of using small coal in thej making. of-.gas fi and the manufacture j of |he j3 Jossphas ? .bfienMre-, duced. It forms still 22_per-scent;- of < the, total-outnui,.and - represents a money sacrifice of £20,000,000.. • Al- ; lowing 10,000,000 homes in the United j Kingdom, these 50,000,000 tons would i allow five, tons, per annum, for every > family. A high authority; (Forsteri Brown) reckons that, at the existing rate of consumption (and- waste); "within 40 years from the present; time an increase in thecostof coal-, wiU begin'tq be a., new, element ( in the commercial position of the na-> tionj.", Mr. Jeans.thinks ,this... esti-j mate too .pessiinist.ic, but if we allow j twice 40 years it. is a terribly short; time in the -life of a nation. Mosts people ignore the fact that the'ex-; haustion has- begun. In the North-j umberland coal field., most of thef thJqk,^eam^.,are 1 worked, out, and it! has now become necessary to workj inches, thick, .which is • reditcing. thej output per .man. by from 15 to 20 per«