SHALE OIL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 275, 15 July 1932, Page 6

SHALE OIL

BIG IIOPES ENTERTAINED OF SUCCESS IN AUSTRALIA ' OPERATIONS AT NEWNES. One day last week I watched two hundred men in business suits scramble from a train and hurry to keep .an appointment, says Colin Wills in the Sydney Sun. It wouldn't have been strange, it wouldn't have been impressive, if it had been at Central or St. James. But it wasn't. It was out beyond the Blue Mountains, in the quiet heart of. a beautiful, rugged valley. It was symbolic, that invasion. it typified one more advance of Australian civilisation, one more conquest from nature. It was the occasion of the handing over of the Newnes shale works to the company that plans to give Australia local motor spirit. Back to Earth. Looking at the big crushing plant sprawled across the hillside, I thought of the giant of the Greek myth who, when falling in a fight, flung himself on the breast of his mother, the earth, and rose with strength renewed. Mankind' is like th'at. Reeling under the blows of adversity, we turn ever to Mother Earth for salvation — and she never fails us. Solid gold dug from the earth has saved Australia from trouble in the past. Will the liquid gold flowing from the retorts at Newnes prove a L vital help in our present difficulties ? Those supporting the new company are confident that it will. _ It Should Pay. Newnes has been worked previous-, ly, but conditions to-day are entirely changed. In the first place, motor I spirit was th'en distinctly secondary to kerosene as a marketable product of the shale. Again, modern methods, such as the proposed erection of a "crac'king" plant at Newnes, reduce the proeess of extraction to a much simpler and more effective one. Other factors also are altered. Petrol won from shale still costs more to produce than that merely refined from flow oil. But with the cost of fr eight, duty and excise against the imported spirit, Newnes spirit is expected to be marketed at a competitive and profitable price. As to its efficacy, tests recently carried out here by mortoring firms prove it the equal of the best flow spirit, and experts have hopes that it will prove even better, thanks mainly to its non-detonating qualities. Government Oversight. Every patriotic Australian hopes for the success of any effort to exploit new natural resources of the continent. It is reassuring to observe that the independence of this particular venture is protected hy a special undertaking between the company and the Government. This provides: — That no action or question or decision relating to any proposed sale or mortgage or other disposition of the company's business or assets or any part thereof shall be taken, determined or made without the consent of the Commonwealth of Australia. That the company shall not enterinto or be in any way concerned in or a party to or act in concert with any commereial trust or comhine, and shall always be and remain an independent Australian business.