412 PROCEEDINGS OF "SECTION E. 



The aim of ereiy nation is to produce by its own efforts those 

 comuioditie,s with which Nature has endowed it in i--.iifticient quantities 

 to supply its own wants, and to leave a surplus which can be exchanged 

 for such commodities as are only obtainable, or are obtainable at less 

 cost, from abroad. 



In the production of coal, it has been seen that the United States 

 far excels all other nations. Her principal coalfields, however, are so 

 situated that they chiefly sei ve to supply the internal demands of the 

 country, and to a great extent those of Canada, besides a considerable 

 surplus to spare for the Atlantic ports of South America. They do 

 not, however, send any great amount of coal into the Pacific, except 

 along the American coast line, and none at all across the Pacific. 

 It would be easier for the States to send coal to Europe or Africa 

 than to Australia, Japan, China, or India, and, as we know, none goes 

 in that direction. On the contraiy, the Pacific States import coal 

 from Australia, and even from Japan. Crossing an ocean with a cargo 

 is less costly than crossing a continent, and this is more and more the 

 case the less the intrinsic value of the article. 



British Columbia, from her proximity to San Francisco, will 

 always be able to enter that market and to supply Alaska with as 

 much of her coal as she can spare; but the quality of her coal will 

 pi-event her beconiing a foi'miclable opponent of Australia and other 

 Trans-Pacific producers. Coal mined in the interior of British 

 Columbia finds a sufficient demand among the neighbouring smelters 

 to prevent any great surplus reaching the Pacific coast for export 

 purposes. 



Mexico, Nicaragua, Columbia, Peru, and Chile have coalfields 

 which supply local requirements to some extent, althouo'h they have in 

 most cases to be supplemented by imports from Australia. Chile sends 

 some coal to San Francisco. 



Japan produces at present a tonnage of coal amounting to nearly 

 half as much again as all Australia, and exports 16 per cent, of its 

 output, China, Singapore, and California being her best customers. 

 Considering the manifest destiny of Japan to become a manufacturing 

 country, and the inferiority of her coal, I am inclined to believe that 

 at no distant date she will not only consume all her own coal, but 

 will be a great importer, at first from Australia, where the best of the 

 coalfields are situated near the coast, and ultimately from China, when 

 the coalfields of that countiy have obtained free access to the sea- 

 "board. 



Australia and China are the only serious competitors for the coal 

 trade of such Pacific countries as cannot meet their own requirements. 

 Australia can easily supply her own needs, and the surplus she can 

 export is limited only by the producing capacity of her population, on 

 the one hand, and the demands of foreign countries on the other. 

 China produces coal enough for the requirements of the interior, but 

 owing to the expense of land carriage finds it an economy to import 

 coal from Japan and Australia to its own seaboard. This will not 

 long be the case, as the extension of railways is rapidly setting in. 

 The circumstance of the almost entire denudation of timber in China 

 ensures a demand for coal for everv^ pui-pose for which wood is em- 

 ployed as fuel elsewhere, and the demands of her teeming population, 

 however economically inclined, must be enormous. An inexhaustible 



