May be Industry for

Power Alcohol

May be Industry for Islands

rE Australian Bureau of Science and Industry recently was instructed by the Australian Government to pro ceed urgently with an investigation of how to produce power alcohol in Aus tralia in very large quantities, so as to reduce imports of motor spirit and the demand for foreign exchange.

The Bureau set up a special commit tee, a section of which inquired into the nipa or sago palm of Papua—reputed to produce power alcohol lavishly. Profes sor Ashley, of Sydney University, inter viewed the Administrator of Papua (Hon.

H. L. Murray) when he was in Sydney recently, in relation to the nipa palm, and there may be interesting develop ments.

Already many Australian motorists are using a 6-1 mixture of petrol and power alcohol, with good results.

A Sydney syndicate has been seeking Commonwealth permission to form a developmental company to deal with the nipa palm in Papua, urging that a com pany with a capital of about £1,000,000 could produce annually about 400,000,000 gallons of first-class spirit. The plan was rejected, and the Sydney men now are trying to form a co-operative society.

The promoter has been calculating on selling the Papuan power alcohol in Aus tralia profitably at 1/4 per gallon. This is based on the assumption that motor cars will run on power alcohol alone; but experiments up to date indicate that the largest proportion of power alcohol that may be used in high compression engine fuel is about 15 per cent.

Hon. George Murray, New Guinea Director of Agriculture, brought under the notice of the Australian authorities the value of the cassava plant as a source of power alcohol. He says that cassava can be grown easily and exten sively in New Guinea, as it is in other tropical countries, and that already there is much cassava growing in New Guinea in a wild state.