GERMAN POTASH MONOPLY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 75, 23 December 1918, Page 8

GERMAN POTASH MONOPLY

Gprmnnv- regarded her po.'sea-ion of Hio largest potash depnsils in the world as her trump card for (ifter-Hie-war trade negotiations. An interestinj} article hi a recent issue of the "Board of Trade Journal" shows tlmt we have overcome our pre-war dependence uhoii Germany for notash. lvhreh in various forms is used for p.ndlcM purposes, from the fertilising of the soil to Hie compounding of medicine?, and from Hie. ninii'ifael'iirn of ontical ([loss and explosives to the manufacture, of cocoa and matches. The, chief production is from the treatment of blast furnace slag dusi;.'bill; not a few other sources of supplv linyo been tapped, for example, the extraction of potash from I o'lint liriimr, which is Hie son"y liquor rcsultiii" from iho wajliinnr of greasy wool. The story rends Iil"o a ro'iiancc, and ; t Hie p'-nclieal efoct of demon-' strating the emptiness of Germany's continual threats to hold oI:1it nations ,to rniisom 01 potash; Now Australia ea'i turn out blast furnace dust, and c.in also turn an honest penny by doini} H'e scouring of grensv wool lvforc r-xtwrHjic;, nnd RiiitaMe \rpfi>r o.in be fount! for woo! scouring. The TVdernl Oovpniment, ns it controls exnort. should insist on all wool beiii'r scoured locallv, whicli can lio (loi)p by nlacinor an export duly n'i siien'v wool, and two birds would be ki'-lH wilh one stone—increase the scope of lon.nl cmnlnyinent and make our own potash fertiliser.