13 



that our requirements have increased in very rapid progres- 

 sion during the last century, the annual output having, 

 during the last half of the century, more than trebled, until 

 it reached, in 1899, 220 millions of tons, and it may be stated 

 to be now or in the immediate future 250 millions of tons per 

 annum. 



Whether the rapid increase in consumption is to 

 continue is a matter about which we can only conjecture, 

 but simply taking the 250 millions as the annual requirement 

 with an available stock of 15,000 millions in hand, or that 

 can be produced at a reasonable cost, it does not require 

 much calculation to form an opinion as to the limits of our 

 supply. 



This country does not stand alone in the production of 

 coal, and it is possible, and, indeed, most probable, when 

 need arises, that vast coalfields will be exploited in Australia, 

 Canada, South Africa, and India, in our own possessions; in 

 China, where it is estimated there is coal enough for the 

 whole world; in Japan and the Malay Archipelago; while in 

 Tonquin there is said to be an abundance of steam coal that 

 would probably rival the production of South Wales. But 

 when our own resources begin to fail we could not import 

 coal from other countries, possibly the other side of the 

 world, excepting at considerable cost, and then would come 

 in the necessary sequence of manufacturers locating them- 

 selves in the neighbourhood of the coal and the probable 

 result of a great downfall in our trade and prosperity. 



We may, however, feel an absolute certainty that when 

 the need arises some other means will, under Providence, be 

 forthcoming to remedy the evil we may possibly anticipate 

 by the failure of what appears to us one of the absolute 

 necessities of existence, the supply of coal. 



With regard to traction, illumination, and possibly the 

 generation of heat, electricity appears to open up a vast 

 vista of possibilities, and as yet we appear to be only on the 

 threshold of discoveries in connection therewith that may 

 possibly make their mark in the twentieth century as steam 

 has signalised the nineteenth, and who can say what other 

 wonders there are in store for us and our children after us. 



However, with regard to coal, one thing is very certain 

 that with the prospects before us of the limitation and sub- 

 sequent failure of the supply in this country consumers ought 



