COAL SUPPLIES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 July 1924, Page 12

COAL SUPPLIES.

PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE. Sir Richard Redmayne, who is described as the leading coal expert in the world, painted in the gloomiest of colours, at the, Power Congress at Wembley (says an exchange), the prospects that lie before the coal industry. All the world’s coal, he said, is likely to be consumed within from 1500 to , 2000 years. This is, however, a long period, more than equal, at the maximum, to the duration of the Christian era, and it is distinctly a. more arresting prediction of Sir Richard Redmayne ’s that the world’s supply of mineral oil, from which petrol is obtained, will be completely exhausted in from 50 to 100 years. Science, however, is continually exploring the possibilities of the development of fresh sources of power, and it cannot be regarded as improbable that the use of coal will have become obsolete long before the coal mines near the point of exhaustion. “White coal,” as it is called, has.given new industrial life to many countries and has had the effect, as Sir Leo Chiozza Money recently pointed out, of building up great and growing industries in coalless Italy. The possession by New Zealand of water-power in almost illimitable quantities constitutes for this country an asset of enormous value. Electricity is a permanent rival of coal and oil, and, derived from a source that is not liable to wastage, it promises to, hold the field iii future, not only as an illuminant, but to a large and much more important extent as a motive power. There seems no reason why this Dominion should not upon its running waters establish a wealth of undreamed of dimensions.