Page 6 Advertisements Column 1

Nelson Evening Mail, 14 February 1917, Page 6

■Correspondence has been passing between the Minister of Defence and 1 .Mr R: R. Hunt, secretary of the Auckland Railway [League- as to the advisability of employing returned soldiers in the manufacture of potash from seaweed. Since the war began the price of caustic potash has cone up from £77 per ton to £llsO. The seaweed industry is an important one in Japan. 600.000 persons being employed, and large quantities of gelatinous articles exported to China. The Japanese also utilise seaweed in the manufacture of many other articles, including picture-frames, and even (policemen's boots, while in 'France and South America also the industry is an important one. The New Zealand Herald states that samples of kelp from the west coast of Auckland were recently forwarded to the Board of Agriculture, but the analysis showed only a very low percentage of potash. Tt is considered, however, that, seaweed from other parts of the New Zealand coast may contain a hisrher percentage, and it was suggested by, Mr Hunt recently that I if farmers and others dwelling on other ' parts of the coast 'were to gather andt forward samples to the .Board of Agriculture, it would thus be in a position to determine -wrrcther the industry could »>e established on a workable basis, m the 1 itoroniQP-