702 REPORT— 1889. 



FRIBAT, SEPTEMBER 13. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. The Oomtist Criticism of Economic Science. 

 By W. Cunningham, D.D., B.Sc. — See Reports, p. 462. 



2. On the Present State and Future Prospects of our Coal-supply. 

 By Professor Edward Hull, LL.D., F.B.S. 



The author regarded the meeting at Newcastle as a fitting opportunity for 

 reviewing the prospects of our coal-supply — as this question formed the principal 

 subject of the address of Lord Armstrong at the last meeting of the Association 

 at Newcastle in 1863 ; and since that time the output of coal from British mines 

 had heen proceeding with accelerated rapidity, though subject to periodical fluctua- 

 tions. A diagram had been prepared and was exhibited to show by a series of co- 

 ordinates the rate of production from the commencement of the century. At this 

 date the output of coal probably did not exceed 10,000,000 tons, a very large 

 proportion of which was drawn from the Newcastle district. In the year 1830 

 the quantity raised in the British Islands was about 29,000,000 tons ; in 1860 it 

 had reached 80,042,698 ; and in 1888 the quantity had reached about 170,000,000 

 tons, as shown by the returns issued by the Board of Trade. There was reason for 

 believing that between the beginning of the century and the year 1875 the output 

 of coal had more than doubled itself for each successive quarter of a century. 

 Since the year 1860, in which the author had estimated that sufficient coal existed 

 to a limiting depth of 4,000 feet to last, at the rate of production for that year, 

 for one thousand years, the available quantity of coal had been reduced by 

 3,650,000,000 tons ; but this amount, great as it was, had not very materially 

 affected the actual quantity of coal in the British islands, though it had made a 

 very appreciable inroad on the supposed available resources. 



The relation between coal-production and the development of the iron-trade 

 since the discovery of the iron-stone deposits of the North Riding of Yorkshire, 

 and the richer haematites of North Lancashire and Cumberland, was then con- 

 sidered ; and the diiferent coal-fields of the British Isles were passed in review in 

 order to show those which are in a progressive condition and those which are sta- 

 tionary or retrogressive. The author concluded his subject by expressing an 

 opinion that, while the enormous output of coal during the past few years had not 

 actually crippled our resources, a general rise in the value of coal must ensue in 

 the near future, owing to the greater depth at which the mines vnll have to be 

 worked, and the increased cost of coal-mining Reference was then made to the 

 great expansion of coal-mining in America, as illustrated diagrammatically, and the 

 author agreed with the late Professor Jevons that future British manufacturers 

 must not expect to derive any help from the import of coal from the United States 

 when coal shall have become dear or scarce at home. 



3. Our West African Possessions : their Economic Opportunities and how 

 they are abused and neglected. By H. R. Fox Bourne. 



Our West African possessions are not properly colonies. Though we have 

 acquired considerable territory and extensive sea-frontage at the Gambia, Sierra 

 Leone, the Gold Coast, Lagos, and the Niger Protectorate, these places are not 

 adapted for European settlement, and almost their only political value to us is in 

 connection with commerce. We should so hold them, if we choose to hold them 

 at all, as to develop honourable trade with the natives near the coast and also with 

 the superior and far more numerous races that inhabit the tablelands in the 

 interior, where a genial climate, an immense area of fertile soil, and a profusion of 



