The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-08-12 00:00:00

OUR COAL RESERVES.

The report of the Coal Commission just printed, dis-
cusses at length the probable time that our reserves of
coal will last. The Commissioners say that whatever
view may be taken of the question of duration f cal,
the results will be subject to coutingencie,, which
cannot in any degree be foreseen. On the one hand
the rate of consumption may be thrown back to any
extent by adverse causes affecting our national pr
redly ; and on the other hand new discoveries and
developments in new directions may arise to produce
a contrary effect utsai the consumption of coal. Every
hypothesis must be speculative, but it is certain that if
the present rate of increase in the consumption of coal
be indefinitely continued, even in an approximate
degree, the progress towards the exhaustion of our coal
will be very rapid. The report proceeds :

In all the foregoing estimates of t oration we have for the
sake of simplicity excluded from view the impossibility lif
supposing that the pnaluction of coal could continue in full
operation until the last remnant was used, and then suddenly
cease. In reality a period of scarcity and dearness would
first Inc reached. This would diminish consumption, :Ind
podong daration lint only by checking the prosperity of the
conntry. The absolute exhanstion of coal is a stage which
will probably never be reached. In the natantl order of
events the besl and most accessible coal is that which is the
first to be worked. and nearly all the coal which has hitherto
been raised in this country has been taken from the roost
valuadde seams many gif which have in consequence suffered
great diminution. Vast deposits of excellent anti highly
available coal still remain, but it preference will continue
to be given to the best and cheapest beds, and no we ap-
proach exhaustion the country will oyslow degrees lose thead-
vantageous position it now enjoys in regard to its coal supply.
Much of the coal included in the returns could never he
worked except under conditions of scarcity anti high price.
A tinie must even be anticipated when it will Inc more econo-
mical to import part of our coal Omit to raise the whole of it
from our residual coal beds and before complete exhaustion
hire:trim' the importation of coal will become the rule, and
not the exception, of Our practice. Other countries would
undoubtedly Inc in a position to supply our deficiencies, for
NOrtll America alone possesses tracts of coal-hearing strata
no yet almost untouched of seventy times the area of our IAVII.
1:1It it may well Inc doubted whether the manufacturing
supremacy of this kingdom can lie maintained after the im-
portation of coal has become ft necessity.
_..• • • • -

Sir Roderick Mnrchiscn adds a protest to the report,
in which he says :

Although I agree with my brother CoMMISSIOnerS no to the
greater portion of the preceding Report, I beg to record my
earliest protest against the statement made in page xii, upon
the probable existence of coal fields outer the cretaceous
and other secondary rocks in the south of England. That
view being, purely theoretical, is in my opinion distinctly con-
troverted by the evidence of physical data all around the
area in question, whether hi England or France. For,
wherever rucks of carboniferous or older data are there found
in contact with younger deposits, such older reeks arc every-
where unproductive of coal. I am, therefore, of opinion
ami many well-known practical mining geologists agree
with me), that the existence of any prodadive coal fields in
the south-eastern counties of England l in the highed degree
improbable.