INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 450, 7 February 1933, Page 2

INDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL

,N.Z. PRODUCTrON OF FUEL FORECAST BY FAMOUS MOTORIST. * IMPORTATIONS ,UNNECESSARY. In the use of a mixture of industrial vegetable alcohol and benzol, produced from brown coal, Mr. S. F. Edge, for 30 years one of the most prominent figures associated with the development of the motor car and the motor industry in England, sees a possible means of escape for the whole world, and for New Zealand in particular, from th'e difficulties of the present times. Mr. Edge who fis 'a racing motorist in the first years of the eentury was one of the first to realise the practieal value of the pneumatic tyre of to-day, who forecast the use of the six-cyinder engine, heing laughed at for his propheey, who suggested that ships should he propelled by internal combustion engines, and who was formerly president of the Council of the Society of Motor Manufactuers and Traders of Great Britain, arrived in Christchurch recently on a visit to relatives. He is now retired from business, but, is still keenly interested in everything connected with the motor trade. "I have great hopes," he said, "for the future of a motor fnel consisting of a mixture of industrial alcohol 'and benzol. It is a mixture whieh gives better results than petrol, and which is a great deal cheaper. The possibilities for New Zealand are immense. Industrial alcohol can be made from pot'atoes, sugar beet, maize, and many other common agricultnral products, also by a well-known process, from brown coal, of which I believe you have huge supplies in New Zealand. 'To me, there seems no reason why you should import any fuel at all.' "This naay be a turning point in the world's trouhles," Mr. Edge remarked. "What is causing half the difficulties of to-day? Simply the fact that the farmer cannot find an assured market for his produce. If the world used the fuel I have suggested, the farmers everywhere would be in a position to sell everything th'ey could produce without the slightest diflBculty. "In New Zealand you could produce great quantities of industrial alcohol and great supplies of benzol. Moreover, you have a plentiful supply of electric power for production purposes. The money you send away to buy petrol wonld then be kept in the country, 'and you would be employing large numbers of men, besides cheapening the cost of your fuel." Mr. Edge has done perhaps more than any other man to make the use of motor cars as common as it is. In every department of the industry, and above all by his own example in winning international races throughout Europe, he advanced the British motor trade in the days when France and Germany held World supremacy in the manufacture of cars. His own firm, S. F. Edge, Ltd., was the parent firm of the present famous Napier Gompany, the manufacturers of th'e wellknown Napier Lion aero engines. During the war he was appointed Controller of the Agricultural Machinery Department of the Ministry of Munitions, not only because of his familiarity with motor vehicles, but also because of his knowledge of agriculture. For some years, during the war, he owned orie of the largest pig farms in England, and also had great success in th'e breeding of Shorthorn sattle.