4 MINERAL STATISTICS. 



From this table it appears that the total quantity of coal (so far as 

 tabulated) raised in all India during the year 1867j was 1,18^61,031 

 mds., or 479,233 tons, and in the year 1868, 1,35,62,274 mds., or 

 547,971 tons. It is worthy of notice also that of this large quantity, 

 only 13,753 mds. were obtained from any other field than that of Rani- 

 gunj in the year 1867 ; and only 1,11,445 mds. in the year 1868. 

 Nothing can more forcibly show the vast importance of thi'S one 

 coal-field. 



A simple inspection of the figures given above will show that, 

 with some fluctuations, the amount of coal raised in this country has, 

 during the eleven years just past, increased rapidly and on the whole 

 steadily-, from 61 1 lakhs of maimds in 1858 to 12 7$ lakhs of maunds in 

 1868. In other words, the quantity has considerably more than doubled 

 during the lapse of ten years. If we go back still further, we find that in 

 1850, the total quantity sent away from the Ranigunj field was 22 

 lakhs of maunds, while in 1868, this out-turn had grown to 126 lakhs, 

 or nearly six times the amount. Few industries can point to such an 

 extension within the same number of years. 



I have already had occasion to point out that, although there is a 

 steady demand for the better quality of imported coals for certain pur- 

 poses, for which the Indian coals are not well adapted, and for sea-going 

 or long voyage steamers, still the amount of coal imported to Calcutta 

 year by year depends much more on questions of freight, dead weight, 

 and of general trade, than on any question merely affecting the demand 

 for, and the supply of, fuel. 



The local demand again, from the very fact of its being local, 

 m^st vary materially from year to year. For instance, during the earlier 

 three or four of those years for which returns are here given, there was 

 a large, but very local, demand for coal, even of an inferior quality, for 

 the works of construction on the East Indian line of railway, which 

 demand almost entirely ceased in 1860. In that year, more than one- 



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