BRITAIN'S GOAL SECRETS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 7565, 8 May 1919, Page 5

BRITAIN'S GOAL SECRETS

By SIR GUY CALTHROP, The British Coal Controller.

("Tit-Bits.")

The output of coal in the United Kingdom increased during the ten years immediately prior to the war, from 232,411,784 tons in the year 1904 to 287,411,869 tons in the year 1913, when the maximum production of this country was reached. The annual increase of production averaged over this period about 5,500,000 tons.

During the same pre-war decade the number of persons emp'oyed above and below grouSjl in connection with coal raising in Britain rose from 838,629 in 1904 to 1,110,884 in 1913. Thus we see that at least on« man in every twenty was, before the war, concerned with the coa lindustry.

It was thus inevitable that the mining contribution to the fighting forces would be large. As a mater of fact, at the end of 1916 the number of coalminers who had joined the Colours sine© the outbreak of war was 289 ? 000, equal to fourteen and a half divisions of tho British Army. Their value, more especially in trench warfare, has been incalculable.

LOSS OF' £60,000,000

During 1918 the miHtary situation required the release of about 75,000 additional men from the mines for the Forces, and by the end of the recruiting nearly 400,000 men from our coal, mines had been enlisted since the outbreak of hostilities. Against this reduction must be set off a number of men in excess of the usual numer entering bthe industry each year. The urgent national call for men naturally reduced the coal output. During the war Britain has lost in actuil coal production about 120,000,000 tons, representing a money loss to the nation, kt 10/- a ton ,a very low figure;, of £60,000.000. During the same n«riod, owing not only to 'a'bour' shortage as in this country, but also and chiefly by reason of her coal-fields being occupied by the enemy, our ally. Franca, lost at 'least 90.000,000 tons, with an approximate cash value of £45,000,000. In the year 1906 every man emp/>vod underground got 340 tons of coal, or nearly a ton for every day of the yfiar. In 1913 he only got 321 tons, a reduction of nineteen tons per man. 'This reduction in output per man is possibly accounted for by the fact that in itutny districts the best and most cheaply worked coal is becoming exhausted. The mo.in output is from less easily worked Beams. But with improved t>vp'iances it is thought by experts that the 1906 maximum may again bp reached, if not surpassed.

AMERICA'S HUGE OUTPUT. The United Stntes of America, with an area twenty-five times greater than the area of Britain, and a population more than twice as great, produces about half the world's coal, whilst rur own country produces a quarter. Thus the two cfeat English-speaking countries produce between them threefourths, or, in other words, three out of every four tons of coal vised in the world! There have been many estimates of the quantity of coal still lying beneath the surface of Britain. The latest estimate of coal within 4,000 ft. of the surface fe 197,000,000,000 tons. If 15 per cent, be deducted for wastage, this quantity represents a supply which, at the present rate of consumption and export, would last 580 years. But the exeat hope of the future is the possibility of getting much greater industrial effectiveness out' of the coa' raised, by turning it all into electrical energy for power, light, and heat. It is estimated that were this done on a national scale, and by the best modern methods, one ton of coal would do the work at'presen* done by four tons! Electricity is thus the great hope of the future* in savins; our coal measures and keening up our coal export, which is th*> sheet-anchor of our financial stability.