THE COLONIST. FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1920. COAL SUPPLIES.

Colonist, Volume LXII, Issue 15346, 9 April 1920, Page 4

THE COLONIST. FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1920. COAL SUPPLIES.

One result of the use of the Panama Canal by steamers in the New Zealand trade is that they have drawn upon America for bunker coal. Newport News, iv Virginia, has for that reason become a'regular port of call for some of our liners. The war and industrial troubles in other countries have also caused the development of an export trade in American, coal. In the course of an article in the "Financial Review of Reviews," Mr. John JB. C. Kershaw deals with the drop in the exports of British, coal, and he comes to. the conclusion that this falling-off is likely to be permanent, because America is now producing coal at from one-third to one-half the cost of production in-Britain. The American coal proprietor has natural advantages. He. works thicker seams at a lesser depth than does the Englishman, Welshman, or Scotchman, and consequently it is easier for him to employ, mechanical apparatus underground and to obtain si much higher output per man. At present more than Jialf of the total bituminous coal in the United States is mined by machines, and very soon there will 'be practically no handmining at all in the soft coal regions. Improvements which have been made in the machines have increased their capacity to a considerable extent. They are operated in most cases by electricity j and one machine will carry out both the cutting and the loading of the coal, leaving very little heavy or laborious work for the underground worker to do. The coalminer. in America is regarded as an unskilled worker. He is, in fact, a navvy. The machines used are under the control of skilled men, but the actual work of handling the coal is carried on for the most part by men from the Eastern and South-Eastern countries of Europe. Another expert asserts that the possibility of the United States becoming a large exporter of coal, and perhaps the world's greatest coal purveyor, looks comparatively eaoy when a comparison is made of the relative supplies of coal in varioCs I &ectioni of the globe.