The Question of Immigration. 533 



of Lome said respecting it in a speech at Victoria, British Columbia: 

 " The coal from the Nanaimo mines now leads the market at San 

 Francisco. Nowhere else in these countries is such coal to be found, 

 and it is now being worked with an energy that bids fair to make 

 Nanaimo one of the chief mining stations on the continent. It is 

 of incalculable importance, not only to this Province of the Dominion 

 but also to the interests of the Empire, that our fleets and mercan- 

 tile marine, as well as the continental markets, should be supplied 

 from this source." 



The importance of the coal supply of British Columbia is pointed 

 out by Sir Charles Dilke, in his book entitled " Greater Britain," as 

 follows : — 



" The position of the various stores of coal in the Pacific is of 

 extreme importance as an index to the future distribution of power 

 in that portion of the world ; but it is not enough to know where 

 coal is to be found, without looking also to the quantity, quality, 

 cheapness of labour and facility of transport. In China and in 

 Borneo there are extensive coal fields, but they lie 'the wrong way' 

 for trade ; on the other hand, the California coal at Monte Diabolo, 

 San Diego, and Monterey lies well, but is bad in quality. Tasmania 

 has good coal, but in no great quantity, and the beds nearest to the 

 coast are found of inferior anthracite. The three countries of the 

 Pacific which must for a time at least rise to manufacturing 

 greatness, are Japan, Vancouver Island and New South Wales ; but 

 which of these will become wealthiest and most powerful depends 

 mainly on the amount of coal which they respectively possess, so 

 situated as to be cheaply raised. The dearness of labour under 

 which Vancouver suffers will be removed by the opening of the 

 Pacific Railroad ; but for the present New South Wales has the 

 cheapest labour, and upon her shores at Newcastle are abundant 

 stores of coal of good quality for manufacturing purposes, although 



for sea use it burns ' dirtily ' and too fast The future of 



the Pacific shores is inevitably brilliant, but it is not New Zesland, 

 the centre of the water hemisphere, which will occupy the position 

 that England has taken on the Atlantic, but some country such as 

 Japan or Vancouver, jutting out into the ocean from Asia or from 

 America, as England juts out from Europe." 



