THE EMPIRE’S RAW MATERIALS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1740, 13 October 1917, Page 1

THE EMPIRE’S RAW MATERIALS.

The , last report of the work of the Imperial Institute presented to the Executive Council, of which Lord Islington (some time Governor of New Zealand) is chairman, states that apart from confidential reports to the Admiralty, the Ministry of Munitions, the War Ti'ade Department, and other Government Departments, reports were completed on the composition, value, and commercial prospects of raw materials from eighteen countries in the Empire overseas, while the inquiries received and answered related to as many as thirty British countries. Five tons of potatoes which wefer forwarded to the Institute from Egypt for trial sale in the English market proved to be of very good quality, and were readily disposed of in London, realising prices up to si d per lb. wholesale. Whether potatoes from Egypt could be sold at a profit in normal times is doubtful, but, it is understood that the Egyptiou authorities may decide to ship consignments of potatoes to England next winter, and the Imperial Institute has offered to arrange for their sale in London. Meanwhile arrangements arc being made for the dispatch of seed potatoes of the type preferred in England for trial in Egypt. A possible now raw material for paper manufacture is indicated by the increasing use of wattle bark by British tanners. Large quantities of the spent bark arc likely to be available in the United Kingdom, and investigations conducted at the Imperial Institute show that though the yield of pulp from the baric is somewhat low, the material is promising for the production of brown paper and the cheaper grades of white or cream papers, such as newspapers. Arrangements are now being made at a British paper mill for a large scale trial of the .spent bark. A special monograph (supplementary to twenty-nine others on vari- ’ ous minerals published in the “Bulletin of the Imperial Institute”) is now in preparation, dealing with the occurrence and utilisation of zinc ores through the xvorld, with special reference to the British Empire. An inquiry has been received from Zanzibar, regarding the disposal of clove stems, which before the war were shipped principally to Germany. It is understood that this by-product of the Zanzibar clove industry was used for two purposes; (1) grinding to powder, for use as a cheap spice in place of genuine clove powder, and (2) distillation of volatile oil. There is not likely to be a large demand for the stems for the first of these purposes in the United Kingdom,' but the possibility of distilling oil from them Ims been discussed with a number of essential oil distillers, and as a result it appears probable that a market might ho found for the stems for that purpose.