§ Mr. TOUCHEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if his attention has been directed to the warning uttered by the President of the British Association on 30th August concerning the exhaustion of the coalfields of this country; and whether the Government anticipate taking any steps tending to the conservation and lessened waste and export of this source of energy supply, having regard to the extent to which the nation's commercial position and the support of the industrial population are dependent on it?
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§ Mr. McKENNAI have seen a report of the address delivered by the President of the British Association, but I observe that the President's forecast of the probable duration of the coal supplies of the country does not take into consideration certain factors which have an important bearing on the question. In the first place, the president's estimate took no account of the large amount of coal in fields unproved at the time of the inquiry of the Royal Commission, nor of the amount of coal lying below the depth of 4,000 feet which the Commission took to be the present limit of workable coal, but which it may be found possible hereafter to exceed. These two sources the Commission estimated at over 39,000 and 5,000 millions tons respectively, or together nearly half as much as the amount of coal estimated to exist in the proved coalfields. In the second place, the president's estimate was based on the assumption that the output of coal would continue, at any rate for some time, to increase at the same rate as in the past. The Commission, on the other hand, considered that at a time not far distant the rate of increase of output would become slower, to be followed by a period of stationary output, and then a gradual decline. With regard to the second part of the hon. Member's question, no recommendation was made by the Royal Commission, who reviewed the whole subject at length, as to action with a view to preventing waste in the working and using of coals. The suggestion which Sir W. Ramsay is reported to have made, that Parliament should impose a penalty on wasteful expenditure of energy supplies, would involve an amount of control over the industries of the country which, under present conditions, it would be impossible for any Government to undertake. The Commission looked forward to the introduction of considerable economies in the future; and I am advised that both in the working and in the using of coal progress is being made in this direction. As regards the question of the export of coal, the Commission reported that the witnesses whom they heard were generally of opinion that "the maintenance of a large coal export trade is of supreme importance to the country and essential to the prosperity of the coal-producing districts," and the Commission saw "no present necessity to restrict artificially the export of coal in order to conserve it for our home supply."