NITRATES FROM THE AIR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3023, 9 March 1917, Page 6

NITRATES FROM THE AIR

PROPOSAL FOB A NEW ZEALAND INDUSTRY. The National Efficiency > Board lias invited Mr. J. Orchiston, chief electrical engineer to the Post and Telegraph Department, to report at his convenience on his proposal for establishing an industry in New Zealand for producing nitrates from the air. Mr. Orchiston's ideas on the subject were reviewed in The Dominion some time ago. He has since acquired data dealing with the cost of hydro-electro schemes in Germany, Norway, and Italy, and in no case, he says, is there any comparison in the cost of generating current ascheaply as it could be done by ultilising any of the big falls in the southwestern sounds of New Zealand. One of the simplest propositions is that presented in utilising the Bowen Falls, in the Milford Sound. He estimates that after making full allowances for all contingencies that current could bo produced for one-fiftieth part of a penny per unit. In America a rivor or fall that offored one horse-power at a cost of £40 per annum was considered a fair proposition—his Bowen Falls scheme would, he calculated, give one horse-power at a cost of ;C1 per annum. For nitrogen fixing from the air, Mr. Orchiston tjoubts if there is a more favoured spot' in tho world, for at the Bowen Falls there, is deep water close to the sides of the sound, and perfect shelter in all kinds of woather. Beforo tho war Chile nitrates wero £11 per ton. In November last the price was over £17 per ton. The whole world requires a limitless supply of nitrate manures, and as tho limited quantity of good land is worked over and over again so will the need of nitrates increase as a national essential to agriculture. j