Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-01-26

for 'bunkering" purposes. In addition |
to this, however, a very considerable
percentage of the coal sent out of
Great Britain as exports passes to
ports and stations in various parts of
the world from which it is finally sup
piled to ocean vessels for fuel purposes.
A paper presented before the Royal
Statistical society of England by d. A.
Thomas, M. P, stated that:
1.-The great bulk of our export of coal
is for the use of steamships, and it is
within the mark to say that over half of
our exports are for navigation purposes.
Cardiff alone ships over mil
lion tons annually to Port Said, over
half million to Malta and Gibraltar
/ about the same quantity to Cape Verde
and the anaries, over 200 to Col
ombo, and large quantities to Alden,
practically the whole of which goes to
| bunker steam vessels calling to coal at
those depots."
AS the British exports of coal, aside
from that recorded as supplied to YES
sells for fueling purposes amounted in
1910 to over 62 million long tons, the
above quoted estimate would seem to
justify adding to the 80 million tons
recorded as bunker coal by the United
Kingdom and the United States another
80 million as the share of British ex-
ports which finally becomes bunker coal
through purchase for bunkering pur-
poses at ports or stations to which it
was originally exported. While the
Bureau of Statistics is unable to state
the share of American coal export S
which become vessel supplies aside
from that actually reported as bunker
coal and not included in the export
statemenD it is quite probable that a
considerable percentage of the coal
from the United States which passes to
the West Indian Islands and the coast
of Mexico is used for vessel fueling.
Add to this the more than million tons
supplied by the japanese mines to
vessels engaged in the foreign trade,
the more than million tons supplied
from Australia, the nearly / million
tons supplied from India, plus the esti-
mated consumption of about million
tons by the navies of the world, and the
Bureau of Statistics estimate of an
average of rs million tons consumed on
the oceans of the world seems con-
sentative one AS the valuation of the
coal exported for steaming purposes
averages about SO. so per ton, the fur
Their estimate of the value Of the coal
used on the oceans of the world-over
$50 million dollars per annum-seems
also conservative one.
The United States is by far the larg-
est coal producer of the world, its pro-
duction in 1910 being 4411a million
metric tons, against 26411a million by the
United Kingdom, 222 million by Ger
many SO million each by France and
Austria Hungary, 241a million by Rus
STA, % million by Belgium, Is million by
Japan, 141a million by China, 10 million
by Canada, and IL million each by Aus
tralia and India, the grand total of
production in 1910 for all countries for
which statistics are available being a
little over billion tons, of which about
40 per cent. is produced by the United
States, about % per cent. by the United
Kingdom, and about 20 per cent. by
Germany.
The coal beds of the United States
contain large quantities of coal espec-
tally suited to steamship use by reason
of steaming qualities, freedom from
danger of spontaneous combustion, and
proximity to the seaboard.