OIL FROM COAL

Taranaki Daily News, 19 July 1933, Page 7

OIL FROM COAL

PREFERENCE IN BRITAIN GUARANTEE BY GOVERNMENT THE COAL INDUSTRY SAVED EMPLOYMENT PROVIDED HUGE PLANT IN PROSPECT 1 (British Official Wireless.) Rec. 5.5 p.m. Rugby, July 1.7. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald announced in the House of Commons to-day that legislation would be. introduced in the autumn to give effect to a proposal which the Government believed would ensure an immediate advance ,in ■_ the manufacture of home-produced motor spirit. • The proposal would take the form of guaranteed preference of 4d. a gallon in respect to light hydro-carbon oils manufactured in Britain from indigenous coal, shale or peat. The guarantee would be for ten years from April 1, 1934, subject to an arrangement to vary the period and the guarantee according to actual preference, namely, the difference between the Customs duty and excise if any excise duty should be imposed. If the preference remained at the present level of Bd. a gallon tije period of the guarantee would be. four and a half years. If the preference were reduced to 4d. a gallon the period would be nine years and the intermediate rate of preference would vary with the period of the guarantee proportionately. It was estimated that 7000 men would be directly employed and a slightly smaller number indirectly in the industry. Under the plan in view about 100,000 tons, or 30,000,00 gallons of petrol would be produced annually, consuming 350,000 . tons of coal and giving employment to over 1000 miners. In addition, there would be employment in connection with the plant. The cost to the Treasury would be very small. Mr. MacDonald’s announcement has caused unbounded satisfaction in the coal industry. Indeed, some quarters stated that the mining industry had been saved. It has been reduced to a serious plight by the increasing use of oil fuel for the Navy, mercantile marine, road transport and industrial and, domestic heating. The Government’s decision would open the door to the manufacture from British coal by British workers of a large proportion of 110,000,000 gallons of motor spirit now imported annually. Ten years’ enterprise would possibly make Britain independent of imported fuel. It is understood Imperial Chemical Industries, which has already spent £1,000,000 on experiments, was prepared to erect plant costing £4,000,000 on the north-east coast for making petrol from coal, provided the duty was stabilised and the present exemption of home-macle spirit was maintained. The directors declined last night to make a statement until the terms of the proposed guarantee were considered. It is this planfa.to which Mr. MacDonald was referring when he gave the estimated figures of production and .employment. Imperial Chemical Industries has the exclusive right to operate the hydrogeneration process in Britain, but the producers of petrol by the carbonisation method are equally ready to extend their plant.