WORLD'S COAL SUPPLY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 182, 6 September 1909, Page 4

WORLD'S COAL SUPPLY.

BRITAIN'S PKEIOKII POSITION. At the annual meeting of the Institution of Alining Engineers, .Dr. Kobcnt T. Mo'ore delivered ithe. pircsidetia'L address. Ho confined himself to .the question of tlie World's coot supply, and lie pointed out t'lilat all producing countries exported etxul, and Ureat Britain sent it all 1 oro.r the world. .The volume of export was largely determined by the cost of earring, uiikl it was mainly 'the ca.,e with>i\liicli liritfeh ««al could .reach the Mil that enabled lit ito 'he so widely distributed. In 1007 tireat Britain exported 85,000,000 tons of coial, 'which -was li2 per cent of the- total production. Uenuasiy expciytcd 27,000,000 .tons, or 13 |«r cent, of the .Dotal, and the United States exported 13,000,000 tons. Our own MjlOiik'e .sent out 'between them 7,500,000 tons, .whilst Japan exported £,500,000 tons. Belgium, with its coinpitilivHy small output, exported 6,500,000 tens, 'which amounted to 2S per cent, .it i'l'.-i output, or nearly the same aa th'i'iiii Hiitaan, although Uelgium imported a quantity of coal which uieaTly bnjasiced the export. It seemed astonishing thM-, iwit'll a .rapidly increasing output, there should 1m an outlet for the surplus coal. That, however, enabled the collieries ;to give full employiii'Cait, and so reduce Cost of production, because, ■notwithstanding 'what one frequently heard about our supplying cheap coal to the foreigner, that in itself was a safeguard to the consumer against prices lielng unduly raised, because vt gaive the home consumer flic iienolit of competition. Scotch coal could not be sent to Yorkshire .to compete with the coal from the Yorkshire collieries, nor could Yorkshire coal be sent to Scotland, Jn.it when both districts were sending coal to Ha'niburg the quantity shipped was in competition, and as the lunouint exported was a surplus on home requirements, the collieries were endeavoring to se'.U as much as possible at a Tittle better price than, could be obtained for shipping. Tims it came about that the price of 'the land ssiles and th» price of coal in Yorkshire »nd in. Scotland i.vere directly regulated by the competition between .those two, districts in Hamburg. It was another striking fact that: notwithstanding alii the improvements .which had Ibecn introduced, the consumption of coal in the various industries had gone on increasing. it really seemed as iif the position had been reached when the greater the economy meant that the greater was the consumption. The probability was that 'for ii considerable time the consumption -would go on increasing, and we 'were faced "ivitll the problem of how long the coal supply would last, because it must be recognised tint coal onee burnt could not be replaced, and the world's supply was- not inexhaustible. If the production of coal .went on at the marvellous r.alte of increase that it had during the last thirty years, then the probability that the -world's snpp'y would be exhausted 'within the next 500 years. We were frcquentlv presented with alarmist pictures of Great Britain with ife coal supply exhausted. But even assuming that the supply was worked out in even 300 years, 'who could say what the position would be then! Three hundred years heuco "we might be getting our coal Ifrom China, or, whit was even more likely, we should not lit burning coal «ifc all', deriving our heat I directly Tirom the sun.