PETROL FROM PEAR

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 65, 19 March 1925, Page 3

PETROL FROM PEAR

AMBITIOUS AUSTRALIAN

SCHEME.

(FROM ODE OWN COBRESPOKDENT.)

SYDNEY, 11th March. If the claims of Dr. W. M. Sinclair are substantiated, Australia in one act will solve two of her greatest problems "—namely, the control of the prickly pear pest, and the supply of fuel for her enormous and growing., fleet of motor vehicles.

_The prickly pear pest is most serious. Ihis pulpy, spine-covered cactus is spreading over the'lands of Queensland and Northern New South Wales at the rate of a million acres a, year, and already it has possession of nearly 60 - 000,000 acres. The "Minister of Lands in New _ South Wales says he spends half his time trying ;to devise ways of. meeting the scourge; and even now the Government is seeking three men to form a high-salaried Prickly Pear Board, to deal with the problem. Both in New South Wales and Queensland, in certain districts, land is being offered to men as a free gift, provided they clear the prickly pear from it.

Dr. Sinclair, some time ago, devoted himself to research, work in connection with cancer. He believed the discovery -of a cure,- for cancer would' be •■ found' through a' better knowledge" of- cell' life, and he turned to the' peculiar, rapidlygrowing prickly pear as affording him the right material for experiment. As his experiments proceeded, Dr. Sinclair began to contest the hitherto unchallenged statement -of-fche-scientists~thafc-prickly pear- consisted of water in the proportion of from 92 "to 95 per cent. He went on to demonstrate, that, from a ton of prickly pear, he could take 14 •gallons of crude alcohol. '.■.-.".

Dr. Sinclair states that he takes from the pear a mixture which consists of aldehyde and paraldehyde,- which:■ are • first cousins to the" alcohol found in spirits and fermented beverages. Then fby hydrogenisation this liquid' is converted into power alcohol. It is calculated that, as the pear grows, at the rate of 100 tons to the acre,,, it/.will be possible to get 1400 gallons of power alcohol from each acre of pear. Competent ecientific men, to whom he has-submitted data hava given certificates that he is-actually doing what he claims with the pear. A company with a capital of £50,000 has been formed to exploit the discovery, and all the shares have been taken up privately, without any appeal to the public. It is expected that- there will b» two sources of sub'sforitiaT profit—from the power alcohol derived from the pear, and from the land after the pear has been cleared away. The task of cutting the pear and clearing.the land, will call for many workers, and it is proposed toestablish community settlements of immigrants in connection therewith, along the lines; that have ■ been so successful in Western Australia.