ON FUEL ECONOMY. 253 



It will be seen that the instructions are somewhat vagTie, and that they also 

 leave considerable openings for guess-work and estimates instead of accurate 

 facte ; furthermore, the instructions would in some cases at any rate compel 

 the inclusion of washery dirt under the heading of output, since this dirt does 

 not always come -under the heading of ' dirt extracted from the coal at the mine.' 

 It is by no means uncommon for one company to control two collieries not far 

 distant from each other and to erect at one of them a washery to which the 

 small coal from the first colliery is to be sent for washings ; in such a case if the 

 instructions are literally followed, washery dirt will be included in the returns 

 of the coal output from the first colliery and excluded from the second. 

 Accordingly, it is natural that the practice in making up these returns varies 

 greatly from district to district, and even from colliery to colliery. In some 

 cases both the dirt picked out on the belts and that washed out in the washery 

 are dedncteH from the pithead weight, i.e., from the tonnage on which the 

 men are paid ; in other cases no deduction at all is made for washery dirt, and 

 in yet other cases an arbitrary percentage is deducted from the coal sent to the 

 washery. There is also some difference as regards the practice concerning ' free 

 coal ' given to the miners and coal for colliery consumption. In most cases all 

 this coal is returned as part of the production ; in some cases the coal consumed 

 by the pits is not included, and apparently in a few cases both the 'free coal' 

 and coal for colliery consumption are deducted from the output. In some places 

 it is customary to give as a return of output the landlord's tonnage, that is the 

 amount on which royalty is paid, which is usually the output less certain deduc- 

 tions allowed by the terms of the lease. In view of this wide variation, it would 

 be a distinct advantage if the Home Office were to issue specific instructions on 

 all the above points, .<;o as to secure iiniformity of method in making returns 

 throughout the United Kingdom. The methods used in Canada might well be 

 adopted here. 



In Canada a more definite system is adopted ; the introduction to the 

 Canadian Annual Statistics states in definite language what is intended, as 

 follows : — - 



The term ' production ' in the text and tables of this report is used to 

 represent the tonnage of coal actually sold, or used, by the producer, as 

 distinguished from the term ' output,' which is applied to the total coal 

 extracted from the mine, and which includes, in some cases, coal lost 

 or unsaleable or coal carried into stock on hand at the end of the year. 



Apparentlv throughout Canada the various Provinces issue sheets which 

 have to be filled up every month, and which the different Provincial Govern- 

 ments have agreed to issue in identical form, so that returns for the Dominion 

 can be made by the Canadian Department of Mines or by the Dominion Bureau 

 of Statistics. The whole of the collection of statistics, and, in fact, the 

 administration of mining law. is controlled by the respective Provincial Govern- 

 ments, with the exception of mining lands in certain of the Western Provinces 

 and North-West Territories, which are controlled directly by the Dominion 

 Government. These monthly returns show the amount of free coal or of coal 

 sold to miners at a reduced price, the quantity used for colliery consumption, 

 specifying any used on the colliery company's own railways, the quantity of 

 coal used for making coke and briquettes, the quantity -stocked, and ' the 

 quantity on hand. The only fault that can be found with these returns is that 

 they do not specifically ask for a return of the dirt picked out and washed out 

 respectively. In Canada the term ' production ' is restricted to marketable or 

 ♦Toiinmically useful coal, whilst the term 'output' is the equivalent of what 

 we sometimes speak of in this country as 'drawings,' i.e.. everything drawn 

 out from the colliery, inclusive of any dirt that may be extracted subsequently. 



In the United States the production means the total ptoduction of clean coal, 

 that is to say, coal with the pxclusion of pickings and washerv dirt, and includ- 

 ing colliery consumption. The work is done by the Mineral Resources Division 

 of the United States Geological Survey, but there is a sood deal of overlapping 

 and diflRculty owing to some of the statistics being collected by State Bureaux 

 3nd others by Federal Bureaux : in this resnect attention may be directed to the 

 Conference on this subject held at Washington in 1916. the results of which 

 are printed in a report of the Committee on the Standardisation of Mininir 



