THE NEWCASTLE COAL TRADE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 140, 11 June 1878, Page 4

THE NEWCASTLE COAL TRADE.

In the hope tbat the news will act as . an incentive in the development of our Colonial resources, the following par-ifculsir-l of ./tie yield^of coal in \New " South Wales are taken from ; tbe Sydney Morning Befaty, Ogr coufcem-

porary says:— '« ln the last ten years the output appears to have nearly doubled, and the increase has been disposed of to the countries enumerated in the following proportions :— To the neighboring Colonies the exports have increased 57| per cent. ; to the United Stateß, nlmost inclusively to San Francisco, tbe increase is 166^ per cent. ; to China, India, and the Eastern ports generally, it is 25 per cent. ; and to all other ports it is 25^ per cent, on the quantities exported in 1867. The increase in home consumption has been 97 per cent, for an increase in our population of only 40£ per cent. Here are some differences worfch notice. By far the largest proportionate increase has been to the United Spates, which are credited now with one-tenth of our entire export of coal. The colony of Victoria has nearly doubled hrr imports from us, and she took 264,481 tons in 1876. New Zealaad is our next best customer, and took from us, in the year just named, 150,287 tons, notwithstanding the openiog of mines of her own — an increase of more than balf during the decade. But tbe largest rate of increase, leaving out the Califoruian mail steamers, has been in our own local consumption, which is more than double the rate of increase in the population. Does not this suggest the growth of our manufacturing industries? No doubt it is partly to be accounted for by the substitution of coal for wood for domestic use, end by the extension or our railways. But this has also been done in Victoria and New Zealand, where railways have been pushed on much more rapidly than here; so that, as compared with them, our iucreased consumption of coal, the great source of manufacturing motive power, iea strong presumption of our;greater industrial progress. Our principal customers in the Eaetearn seas are Hongkong, Singapore, Bombay, Java, and two or three Chinese ports. Even Russia has to supply her Pacifio war fleet with Sydney coal, for we sent to Petropauloveki, in 1878, no less than 14,81 1 tons, besides what her vessels may have obteined at our Eastern ports."