5 OCTOBER 1901, Page 3

Coal, "good household coal," seems to have been found in

Kent at last. On Wednesday a "core" brought up from the boring in Shakespeare Cliff showed large fragments of "good bright bituminous household coal," and on Thursday morning, according to a telegram in the St. James's Gazette, a second seam was discovered. The experts are said to be delighted, and to believe that they have struck the deposit which runs down through Wales, under the Channel, across France, and into Westphalia. The pecuniary interests in- volved in such finds are so large that we always distrust first accounts, but in this instance the details given read true, and of course if they are true, and if the expense of working under the sea proves manageable, the event is of national importance. Coal on the spot is the grand need of the South, and every addition to our supply postpones the day when manufacturers must either put out their fires or rely exclusively upon electricity obtained from the river gorges, or possibly from the use of the tides, as a source of power.