500 YEARS' MORE COAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 172, 13 August 1909, Page 3

The United Kingdom in not, as many suppose. the world's greatest producer of coal. Although it turns out between 250 and 300 million tons each year, valued nt the mines sit something like : £1J0,000,000. the United States heats it by a good million tons. The total annual production of coal in the world is over 1000 million tonn. the .value being estimated at about £350.000,000. With the exception only of agriculture, building, and works, and the various food, tobacco, drink, and lodging industries, more people in England and Wales are engaged in coal-mining than i anV other imlustrv. The' 9 number considerably over (100.000, and constitute about 5 per cent, of the male population of over ten years of age. Altogether, five and a-quartar million peopled the world are employed in mining work, and it is estimated that , within five hundred yeans the coal slipplv of the world will he exhausted. After which we shall have to freeze m winter, and eat raw beef and apples. unless radium, or some other friendly tningral, comes to our aid.