HELPING BRITAIN

Waikato Independent, Volume XLI, Issue 3893, 18 August 1941, Page 3

HELPING BRITAIN

ICE CREAM FROM SEAWEED AND MACAROONS FROM N.Z. FRUIT STONES Wall boards from Ceylon coconuts, macaroons from New Zealand apricot, peach and cherry stones, building blocks from the coral mud of British Honduras and canned chicken from India are (among the investigations reviewed in its new report by Britain’s Imperial Institute.

The Institute has carried out experiments on the production from Malayan seaweed of agar-agar, a substance used for such diverse purposes as cheap American icecream, Chinese bird’s-nest soup, electro-plating, and a laxatjve. Malayan tonka beans, which impart to tobacco the scent of new-mown hay, have been examined, as have Australian substitutes for Swedish and Spanish welding rod coating materials. »

| There are reports on ruby-mica from India, South African chicory seed ahd New Zealand pigs’ hair; sheepskins from Tanganyika and banana stems from Palestine; Antiguan cotton seed, Nyasaland tung oil and" Nigerian ginger; soap from Burma, sansevieria fibre from East Africa, raisins from Cyprus, cashew nuts from Sierra Leone and Medicinal plants from Southern Rhodesia. Under war conditions,- much of the Institute’s work is secret, but it may be stated that the Plant and Animal Department made reports on 212 samples and dealt with 1666 other inquiries from Empire countries, while the Mineral Resources Department examined 'IBB4 samples and dealt with 1715 inquiries.