MR. SEMPLE AT HOUGHTON BAY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 123, 20 November 1931, Page 4

MR. SEMPLE AT HOUGHTON BAY

Mr. Semple addressed a large and enthusiastic meeting at Houghtpn Bay last evening. Dealing with the importation of oils, lie said that last year our total imports amounted to £3,120,019. Of this amount, £3,044,636 came from foreign countries. This, he declared, was bad business, particularly when the country had millions of tons of coal and rich shale deposits capable of producing most, or all, of our needs. The latest person to figure in the role of an authority on this question was Mr. Will Appleton, the Coalition candidate for Wellington South, !trho.affirmed that carbonisation is not a commercial' proposition. "It would be- interesting to learn from where he gathered ' his knowledge," .'said Mr. Semple. "Lord Rutherford, one of the greatest living scientists, in his maiden speech in the House of Lords, declared

that experiments had shown that it is scientifically possible to provide tho bulk of British oil supply from available coal. Following on his advice, the British Administrator invited tenders for the supply of fuel oil from coal for tho Navy. Recently, Professor Donnan, C.8.E., F.R.S., of tho University College, London, universally recognised as a loading authority on the subject, declared that Britain can produce her own oil and that 200,000 men could be employed at permanent work, and that Germany, working by the hydrogenation of brown coal and brown coal tar, has for several years produced annually 100,000 tons of petrol. Quite recently information has reached us that a group of Newcastle engineers, after extended experiments, have produced from coal by-products a fuel which they claim is an effective car propellant at 4d a gallon." Mr. Semple also quoted a number of other eminent authorities in support of his contention.