90 HAHBURTON ON COAL TltADE OF THE NEW DOMINION. 



amount of our coal. What will ])e the growth of our coal trade 

 in the next twenty years it is difficult to foresee. As respects 

 the capabilities for supplying an extensive demand, Nova 

 Scotian colleries now opened or in preparation, would raise iu 

 five years five or six millions of tons annually, and the supply 

 could be gradually increased to meet any demand, however 

 great. 



That our coal trade will be very large, unless it is paralyzed 

 by foreign legislation or domestic differences, is perfectly clear. 

 In a few years not less than two millions of tons will be required 

 for domestic purposes alone in British America, for even in the 

 mild climate of Britain a ton per head is consumed for house- 

 hold purposes, and our long winters will render at least three 

 times as much necessary. Every day " the wood age " is be- 

 coming a thing of the past, like the "■ stone age " of archa3olo- 

 gists. Wood suitable for fuel gradually becomes more remote 

 from roads and ports, and rises in price, so that even in Toronto 

 coal is used for household purposes. In parts of the lower pro- 

 vinces the forests have been so wastefuUy and so effectually 

 destroyed, that the farmers have to use coal for house purposes ; 

 and the scarcity of wood and the demand for coal are daily 

 rapidly increasing. Mr. McCulloch estimated the yield of coal 

 in Great Britain in 1840 to be thirty millions of tons ; last year 

 the consumption was one himdred millions of tons. As this 

 progress has upset the calculations even of the most careful and 

 experienced judges, how can we suppose that the future will 

 not dwarf the present by the enormous development of manu- 

 facturing and commercial industry that is destined to take place. 

 But the British American coal trade has elements of develop- 

 ment which do not exist in Britain. We have the increase of 

 population through immigration to count upon, and the increase 

 of the domestic consumption of coal through our rapidly pass- 

 ing out of " the wood age." It will be a bold man who will 

 venture to predict the limits of our coal trade in a few years, 

 if it is encouraged in its infancy by wise legislation, and is 

 developed by capital and industry. At present the mines of 

 Nova Scotia are gradually passing into the hands of the Ameri- 

 cans, there being more Nova Scotia coal stock owned in New 



