54 CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE 



of power, including that required for propelling her vast 

 mercantile marine. Nevertheless, she is using up her re- 

 sources in coal much more rapidly than most other coun- 

 tries are consuming theirs, and long before any near ap- 

 proach to exhaustion is reached her richer seams will 

 have become impoverished, and the cost of mining so 

 much increased that, given cheap transport, it might pay 

 her better to import coal from richer fields of almost 

 limitless extent belonging to foreign countries, and work- 

 able at a much lower cost than her own. 



Let us endeavor to arrive at some approximate estimate 

 of the economic value of the principal sources of power. 

 The present average value of the royalties on coal in 

 England is about 6d. per ton, but to this must be added 

 the profit derived from mining operations after paying 

 royalties and providing for interest on the capital ex- 

 pended and for its redemption as wasting capital. After 

 consultation with several leading experts in these matters, 

 I have come to the conclusion that about is. per ton rep- 

 resents the pre-war market value of coal in the seams in 

 England. 



It must, however, be remembered that, in addition, coal 

 has a considerable value as a national asset, for on it de- 

 pends the prosperity of the great industrial interests of 

 the country, which contribute a large portion of the wealth 

 and revenue. From this point of view the present value 

 of unmined coal seems not to have been sufficiently ap- 

 preciated in the past, and that in the future it should be 

 better appraised at its true value to the nation. 



This question may be viewed from another aspect by 

 making a comparison of the cost of producing a given 

 amount of electrical power from coal and from water- 

 power. Assuming that one horse-power of electrical 

 energy maintained for one year had a pre-war value of 

 5/. ($25), and that it requires about eight tons of average 

 coal to produce it, we arrive at the price of 6s. $d. ($1-55) 

 per ton i.e., crediting the coal with half the cost. The 



