COAL - Clpdigital.org

COAL IN THE PHILIPPINES.
Prof. Edwin Maxey, who has made a study of
coal in the Philippines, is of the opinion that the
islands have a natural supply sufficient for their
own needs. He says that with the inevitable
change from house industries to the factory system
and from the carabao to the railroad as a
means of transportation the question of the coal
supply of the Philippines becomes one of rapidly
increasing importance both to them and to us.
To them because upon it depends in large measure
the development of their industries, to us because
of its importance to our navy and merchantmen.
The normal importation of coal by the islands in
the early 90s amounted to nearly $1,000,000 annually.
The bulk of the importations were from
Australia, Japan and Borneo. That of the latter
two being of inferior variety and from all three
the cost was very high, averaging about $9 a ton.
If these conditions are to continue it is clear that
the industrial development of the islands must be
sorely handicapped. But investigation shows
clearly that this is not a necessary condition, that
it is due rather to a failure to utilize the resources
of their own mines. While they probably will
not become exporters of coal, the investigations
thus far made are ample to show that, with modern
methods of mining, a sufficient amount for
home consumption can readily be produced and at
a cost considerably less than is now paid for foreign
coals. Thus far the production has been
very small, due in part to the crude and expensive
methods of mining and the high cost of transportation.
The mining industrials, in common
with all others of the islands, have been severely
hampered by lack of roads. This is clearly shown
by a government report for 1894 on the mines of
Cebu, which says: "At present those establishments
are obliged to transport their coal in carts
drawn by carabaos at a cost of from $3 to $5 a
ton for transportation alone, which expense cannot
be borne and will bring about the ruin of
these enterprises, thereby further discrediting the
coal mining industry and
RETARDING FOR 30 OR 40 YEARS
more the establishment of this industry in the
Philippines."
When we turn to the map and find that Cebu
is a long narrow island, no part of which is more
than a few miles from the coast, and that the
mines referred to are not ten miles from the port
of Tinaan, we can readily see that the present cost
of transport is several times what it would be
with reasonably good means of transportation. As
the taxes of the islands were not, except to a very
limited degree, expended in the construction of
roads, and as the conditions hitherto have not
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 33
been such as to attract private capital for that
purpose, this prerequisite to civilization and industrial
development has been during the whole
Spanish regime, here as elsewhere, a sort of an
orphan child. Now that the insurrection is ended
throughout the islands we may safely conclude
that a new era in the development of transportation
facilities, and of the industries dependent
upon them, is at hand.
Coal deposits of very considerable extent are
known to exist in the islands of Mindanao, Masbato,
Cebu, Albay, Samar, Luzon, Mindoro, Negros
and Tayabas. The coal belongs to the sime geo
logic age as that of Russia, Austria, Italy, Spain,
etc., and is classed as lignite or brown coal.
While this variety of coal is inferior to anthracite
or bituminous, the inferiority is not so great
as to render it unavailable for most purposes. It
is an excellent variety of lignite, being superior
to those of Japan and Borneo, which have been
imported in large quantities.
The extent of the deposits cannot as yet be
stated with much accuracy, as some of the fields
have not been worked at all, so that we are confined
to estimates. However, according to the
most conservative of these estimates the supply
is sufficient to last for many years. The coal
fields cover a large area and the veins are reason
ably thick. The principal vein thus far discovered
has a thickness of 17 feet of merchantable
coal. This will compare very favorably with the
thickness of veins in the other coal fields of the
world, being several times the average thickness
of the coal veins on the continent of Europe.
OTHER VEINS ARE MUCH THINKER,
but for some time these will not need to be
worked. Not for some time will it be necessary
to resort to deep mining. In the Uling mines
alone nearly a million tons are to be found above
the river level. While a million tons of coal does
not seem like a large quantity to Americans, it
means an enormous amount to the development
of the industries of the Philippine islands. But
this is only one of the many mines in the island
of Cebu which is but one of the many coal producing
islands of the archipelago.
The coal has been tried in steamers with the
following results: "That all varieties of it are
of very good application for combustion in the
fireboxes of steam engines, both on account of
the facility with which they blaze with a flame,
and because of the important conditions of not
choking up, neither giving off a very heavy smoke
nor producing a great quantity of ash. That in
this respect they are superior to the coals from
Australia, inasmuch as their caloric power does
not differ much, and the difference between these