“WHITE COAL” IN SCOTLAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 July 1924, Page 4

“WHITE COAL” IN SCOTLAND.

tßv Jallles Ltimsdcn

Those who have long heen advocating the utilisation o! the Witter power* of the Scottish Highlands will hail the aimomieeineiit that the Government has sanctioned a great selioino for harnessing the watershed of lien Nevis as the dawn of a new era.

The region is probably one ol the best for electricity in the British Islands. Ben Nevis is one ol the three or four British mountains which have an eternal coronal ol snow—the "white coal" of the Swiss alld Italian engineers, who have developed the waterpower of the Alps i n their northern and southern sides.

Fast autumn I visited the Yal d'Aosta in Northern Italy, where electrical power is obtained trout water upon an enormous scale. I could nothin think of the superior advantages of the Koi'jin into which the curries on the non hern slopes ul Beit Nevis pour I heir copious floods.

It is from livers very similar to the Spcmi, the Diu-hart. or the 'lilt, whose torrents descend over an endless .succcHim of cascades, that the Italian engineers delight to derive the power that now drives factories in the distant towns of Lombardy. The Ben Nevis watershed is close to the sea—close to Lm-lt Ltunhe, the "lake of pools," so named from ils depth. Thence ships can sail down tlie broad Firth of l.nnte to the open Atlantic. From litverloehy, where the famous battle between .Montrose and Argyll wtt' fought, tut open plain extend' to Spean Bridge, a plain that could accommodate a . large factory

town. Il' \v:iu*r-i»ouvr is ilosiiiict! to briiijZ population hark to tin* lii*zhlaiuN —a> well il. may—ilu* sct.'iiit* jiilorios nl the i l'’a;*kloin would not Ik* marrotl. I'JecJ trioally ilrivmi laetorios do not ht*l« # Ii • I‘orlil -lllotie : they ilu not hi;i-l tilt.* | landscape or dim tin; Minlighl over j w hole shires. ! In plares like Como, l.ugano, Loren. ' ami muny Swiss towns tin- laircsi Inml- | 1!ro not aliened Hv tlie prnximi ity ol “white foul” factories. Alone [t ho shores 111 llio I tnlinn lakes tiiurist lint ids embowered in Inline'' and busy works (lint feed nnlivo nmntlis exist side liv sitio. The cli ll'iTiMico between Soot In nil ninl Northern Itnly—tin- (ercat menu o r water-power —is that whereas Hilly ha no Mark coal, that mineral is highly developed in Scotland, lilnclc ronl is i to- I'liitndnt ion nl tlio siiipl>iii_lili n<e of ■ tin* Clyde, of llie iron, tin* engineering J nml all tlio oilier industries of Central I Scotland. j Hitherto tvlicn ‘'white coal” Inis I inisteil Mark coal the latter lias gciloralls- heon brought from lar away. Tn ! llir little kingdom of Soul land both | would ho found “'in situ"—tlio ‘‘iihite j roal” on the mountains and tho hlark roal in tlio deep carboniferous strata that stretch from Kit'e to Kyle, j I-'or just as roal can he carried Imm Hamilton to the Highlands, so electric power could lie carried from the f.'rampinns all over the Lowlands. In l.iiiu* hardy electricity is transmitted over greater distances than the distance that separates AI hole, the land of Mg boiling burns, from the Scottish central depression where all the mainline-

lures llouri-h. ll is not tlio conversion of waterpower to olei’iricitv that is the most wonderful sight in Xortliern Italy. It is 11n* transmission of enormous powers over pivot distances—from the Alpine Valievs to Turin, .Milan. I’orpamo. liroseia, and many other ancient ami famous places. Kleetrie trestles and wires—huge structures—are spreading over the plains of the l’o, the Addio, and even of Vciietia lihe a gossamer. Hundreds of miles of main-line railway will soon Ihe electrified. Klectrifiealioii is creeping .southwards from (tenon to I’iss. In Scotland the eonlliel between "white” and black eoal would bo waved on equal terms. As distance count* in modern engineering they are found together, side. In; side. Metaphorically speaking it may lie a question of time when the snows of lien Macdhui and Schiehallion couldlie ‘‘tipped” in tile Clyde Valley in! open competition with coal. j It may be that for economy coal; would long hold its own. Kven in i Xortliern Italy the battle, ii is said, I will take fifty years yet, but electricity in winning every day, and it does all the ‘‘new work.” in order to be cheap enough coal would need to be won in the future in a much more scientific maimer than at present. It it could be excavated mechanically ill great quantity and at a low cost it might endure until the accessible measures are worked out at some distant date. Kven so industry would tlit to the hills, creeping tip the valleys where the waterfalls are, as one sees to-day in Switzerland. Franco, and Italy.