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Star (Christchurch), Issue 16642, 26 January 1922, Page 6

It is certain that the world at largu does not realise what an enormous and difficult task it was to clear the seas of mines after th© conclusion of th© war. Round the British coasts aloike 73,000 mines had been laid as a submarine barrier; and that area represented no more than a fraction, of the total where mines had been sown freely. The British forces engaged in this work of clearance have swept an area about equal to the whole of England and Wales- the work was done thoroughly, but with so much scientific care for the men employed that the loss of life has been loss than on© per cent of the number of hands engaged. In this beneficient kind of “ sweeping tho seas” Great Britain has proved as efficient as in the warlike form for which th© Navy was designed. Owing to high prices there has never been such an opportunity for inventors of money-saving devices as at pre&ent (says a London paper). “ A fortune awaits the man who,” »aid an official of the London General Omnibus Company, ‘‘ invents a device which would save us Id per mile in petrol consumption. It would mean a saving to us of approximately £456,250 a year, worked out on a basis of the present mileage of our motor omnibuses, about 300,000 miles a day.” Applied to every inotor-cnr in the country, such a device would mean a saving of millions of pounds. In th© motoring industry alone there are a number of improvements still to be invented—such as a certain device to stop skidding, and a real and cheap substitute for petrol—each of which would bring the inventor a fortune.