736 EEPOET — 1891. 



hj the workmen would probably more than make up for the amount paid to 

 them. 



In all these co-operative undertakings the workmen would be invited to select 

 three or more of their body to act as ' "Workmen's Directors,' and consult with the 

 employers upon all matters connected with the 2vork and wages of the undertaking. 

 In this way careful supervision would be exerted, and bad and careless workmen 

 speedily got rid of. 



To establish this system it is necessary that it receive official recognition. The 

 men will not believe in it if it merely appears as a gift on the part of the 

 employers. 



Thus it is necessary that registration offices should be established by Government 

 in convenient localities, where these co-operative undertakings would be registered, 

 the main particulars as to capital, interest, &c., being stated, and each half-year 

 the amount paid in wages and the profits made. Attached to each registration 

 office there would be commissioners, men of known standing in their respective 

 districts, and these would form a Board of Appeal to which any labour disputes 

 that might arise could be referred. 



The importance and advantage of such a Board cannot be overestimated.. 

 Disputes that now ripen mto long and protracted strikes would be settled at once 

 and great loss prevented. 



It is appropriate that this scheme should be considered in the great theatre of 

 labour where the British Association this year meets for the prosecution of the 

 great and beneficent objects that it so powerfully advances. 



2. On the Goal Question. By T. Forster Brown, M.Inst.G.E. 



After referrinsT to various writers on the subject, the writer proceeded to discuss 

 the probable duration of our total coal resources. 



This depends upon whether the ratio of increase in production will continue to 

 ascend or diminish. 



It will probably be a decreasing ratio for the following reasons : — 



1. The population of the country is increasing in a diminishing ratio. 



2. The earlier developed coalfields already show a retarded rate of output. 



3. The working of thinner seams will further reduce the output capacity. 

 This would make it appear that the total exhaustion of coal, if the Report of the 



Royal Commission of 1871 is to be relied upon, is in no way imminent; but, as the 

 coal is worked in thinner seams and greater depth, the cost of producing it, after a 

 certain period, will begin probably to steadily increase. 



The writer exemplified the retarded rate of output of the earlier coalfields. 



The maximum output may probably be reached in twenty-five years, and 

 continue for another twenty-five years. After this period a new element in the 

 commercial position of the nation, viz., the greatly enhanced cost of fuel, will 

 commence to be felt. 



This increased cost will be partially obviated for a time by reduction in the rate 

 of wages, and of prices for materials, as well as in royalties and other charges, but 

 it will be impossible to maintain the cost of production at the present limits. As 

 the expansion of our industries is absolutely dependent on a low range in the cost 

 of fuel, the effect of an increased cost will begin to manifest itself, and will operate 

 first of all on our carrying trade. 



We are now able to export large quantities of coal, which acts as ballast, 

 receiving in return all, or nearly all, the raw material required for our manufac- 

 tures, as well as a large proportion of our food supplies, at low freights. With 

 coal at an increased price, we shall have to pay a higher price for our raw material, 

 and this, with the increased cost for steam, must raise the cost of producing our 

 manufactured goods, and limit our power of competing with other countries, lead- 

 ing to a continuance of bad trade, with shorter intervals of prosperity, to the 

 transfer of much of our capital and investments abroad, the loss of that which 

 remains, and to the lowering of wages and the emigration of the best of tha- 

 working classes. 



