COAL FOR 5,400 YEARS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 161, 31 March 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

COAL FOR 5,400 YEARS.

" The Royal Commission on Coal Supplies." says 'Engineering,' "reported in 1905 that the contents of the proved coalfields of the United Kingdom wen 100,000 million tons, and of the still unproved coalfields 40,000 mil'on t'flis. "Taking the latter at 25,000 million' tons, then, at tho present rate of consumption, we have still five hundred years' supplv. "The calculation, 1 vever, turns entirely on the assumption that our present rate of consumption will not Ik increased. Forty years a-o our coal production was 132 million tons, ol which 14S million tons were exported In 1003 it was 230 million tons, anc in 1011 it was 272 mill'on tons, oi more than twice what it was in 1875 If this rat,° of increase is maintainec the estimate of 500 years will dwindl to two figures before the present cen tury has expired. "There is, howov r> r, a gr.or.t deal o coal in the world outside of these ii lands, and already there is known t be in existence 7,307,553 million ton; equal to the world's requirements fo 5,400 years at the present rate of coi sumption."