I think there can be no doubt
that, in some parts of Canada, we are fast passing out of the era of
wood as fuel, and entering on that of coal. In my own city every year,
there is great suffering among the poor from the enormous price of
fuel, and large sums are paid away by national societies and benevolent
individuals, to prevent whole families perishing for want of fuel. I
believe we must all concur with Sir William Logan, that we have no coal
in Canada, and I may venture to state, on my own authority, another
fact, that we have - a five months' winter, generally very cold.
"Sir W. E. Logan demonstrated by a laborious survey the thickness or
depth of the whole group in Northern Nova Scotia to be over 2 3/4
miles, an amount which far exceeds anything seen in the coal formation
in other parts of North America; in this group there are seventy-six
coal beds one above the other.
"These exhaustless coal fields will, under our plan - which is in fact
our Reciprocity Treaty with the Lower Provinces - become, hereafter, the
great resource of our towns for fuel. I see the cry is raised below by
the anti-Unionists, that to proceed with Confederation would be to
entail the loss of the New England market for their coals.
