GOAL CONSUMPTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 4011, 18 August 1915, Page 3

GOAL CONSUMPTION.

Nobody can sav how long the world’s oil resources will last, for no human eye (says an English paper) has ever had a peep at Nature’s subterranean stores. But since Stanley Jevons —just half a century agomade tlie subject- of our coal .supply one of “religious importance,” there have been many gloomy warnings oi what may happen when Great Britain, whose prosperity is built on coal, comes within sight of her last seam. Not- many years ago a Royal Commission assured us that wo luul just about 100,000,000,000 tons left. Now, as we raise about 200,000,000 tons every year it seems* a child s task to oi>*cover how long our coal will ast. Fortunately the problem is loss simple. Since' Jevon’s day new sources have been tapped—notably in Kent—and although we raise more coal than ever wo are learning to waste less. But the waste in combustion is still astounding. There is more power in a ton of coal than in a ton of 4-0 i poi cent dynamite, savs Edison, who lias reminded us that “everything in nature would burn up were it not for the fact that everything except coal is already burned- up, ' and that- there is enough energy in a pound of coal to take it round the world.