ANZAC’S VENTURE.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 May 1921, Page 5

ANZAC’S VENTURE.

LONG QUEST FOR OIL AND GOLD.

.A romantic adventure has been entrusted to a young Australian who has been sent to Britsh Honduras. He is to rough it in the bush for three years looking for gold and oil. Of several candidates this young man, Mr. Ower, was the only one considered by the medical experts to have the physical stamina for the job. Mr. Ower’s prospecting is to cost nearly £5OOO, but if he strikes either gold or oil the investment will be thoroughly sound. This information is supplied by the first annual report of the Colonial Research Committee, which describes what is being done to develop some of the resources of the Empire. One of the most important investigations has been the search of bauxite, the ore from which aluminium is derived. Previously we have had to rely on foreign supplies. Professor J. B. Harrison, the Director of Science in Britsh Guiana, has disclosed extensive deposits of bauxits in that country, some of which are already being worked. The amount is so large that no further search seems necessary.

The cultivation of artificial sponges is another quest. A research officer was sent out last year to the Bahamas. In a small island called Abaco he has set up a laboratory and is studying the varieties of sponges and their growth. All round the Bahamas, says Sir W. Allardyce, the Governor, are hundreds of miles of mud, good for sponge growth. For many decades millions of sponges have been removed with enormous wastage. Hundreds of cartloads are flung away and allowed to rot. Artificial propagation of these sponges is now beyond the experimental stage.