president's address. 19 



comparison with that derived from the combustion of coal, they are 

 negligible ; nothing is to be hoped for from the direct utilisation of solar 

 heat in this temperate and uncertain climate; and it would be folly to 

 consider seriously a possible supply of energy in a conceivable accele- 

 ration of the liberation of energy by atomic change. It looks utterly 

 improbable, too, that we shall ever be able to utilise the energy due to 

 the revolution of the earth on her axis, or to her proper motion round 

 the sun. 



Attention should undoubtedly be paid to forestry, and to the utilisa- 

 tion of our stores of peat. On the Continent, the forests are largely 

 the property of the State; it is unreasonable, especially in these latter 

 days of uncertain tenure of property, to expect any private owner of 

 land to invest money in schemes which would at best only benefit his 

 descendants, but which, under our present trend of legislation, do not 

 promise even that remote return. Our neighbours and rivals, Germany 

 and France, spend annually 2,200,000Z. on the conservation and utilisa- 

 tion of their forests; the net return is 6,000,000L There is no doubt 

 that we could imitate them with advantage. Moreover, an increase in 

 our forests would bring with it an increase in our water-power; for 

 without forest land rain rapidly reaches the sea, instead of distributing 

 itself, so as to keep the supply of water regular, and so more easily 

 utilised. 



Various schemes have been proposed for utilising our deposits of 

 peat : I believe that in Germany the peat industry is moderately profit- 

 able ; but our humid climate does not lend itself to natural evaporation 

 of most of the large amount of water contained in peat, without which 

 processes of distillation prove barely remunerative. 



We must therefore rely chiefly on our coal reserve for our supply 



of energy, and for the means of supporting our population; and it is 



to the more economical use of coal that we must look, in order that our 



life as a nation may be prolonged. We can economise in many ways : 



By the substitution of turbine engines for reciprocating engines, thereby 



reducing the coal required per horse-power from 4 to 5 lb. to 1\ or 



2 lb. ; by the further replacement of turbines by gas engines, raising 



the economy to 30 per cent, of the total energy available in the coal, 



that is, lowering the coal consumption per horse-power to 1 or 1J lb. ; 



by creating the power at the pit-mouth, and distributing it electrically, 



as is already done in the Tyne district. Economy can also be effected 



in replacing ' bee-hive ' coke ovens by recovery ovens ; this is rapidly 



being done; and Dr. Beilby calculates that in 1909 nearly six million 



tons of coal, out of a total of sixteen to eighteen millions, were coked 



in recovery ovens, thus effecting a saving of two to three million tons 



of fuel annually. Progress is also being made in substituting gas for 



coal or coke in metallurgical, chemical, and other works. But it must 



o 2 



