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Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1984, 31 May 1919, Page 1

one could gather, to use it in the raw state for the production of electrical energy. You can get other most valuable products from it, especially oils, and then generate your electrical energy with the residue. Samples of it have been sent to London, and .some of the best experts in England have worked on it and reported most favourably. I do not see why it should not be made to yield both fuel oils, such as oil for the navy, {pul motor spirit, and other lighter oils. By distillation and carbonisation by the latest methods, you can get from brown coal the following things: — “1. Oils, which can be ‘split up’ into (a) heavy fuel oils, (b) light oils, such as motor spirit. 1 “2. Gas, which can be sold in I 7 ; i populous centres and used for various purposes, while in other places it can be burnt, and used in the production of electrical energy, “3. Carbonised residue. This residue is naturally in the form of loose ashes. These can either be made into briquettes, or, as is now being done in the United States, fed direct into tlie furna'cc by means of of jet. This residue can be turned 'into cheap electrical energy, and sent far afield if necessary.

“One great difficulty in the way of using brown coal has been the low value in proportion to its bulk which has rendered it economically impossible to carry it to any great distance,” said Sir Douglas Mawson. “This means of using the coal would overcome this. The oils and the products derived from them would bear the cost of transit, and the residue could be turned info electrical energy and transmitted in that way. Great advances have been made in the last few years in solving the problems involved in the treatment of such coals. I feel certain that if Victoria goes about it in the right way there are marvellous possibilities in the development of her brown coalfields.”