Alcohol for Fuel.

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 2, 1 December 1908, Page 51

Alcohol for Fuel.

An advantage of this fuel is its cheapness, as we have shown from time to time, but it is an advantage that falls short of predominance. It has now been discovered in Queensland, we understand, that a percentage of the molasses running from the sugar mills is alcohol, which can be separated at a cost amply repaid by a selling price of sixpence the gallon. Mr. Cheal, who writes to us on this subject from Auckland, suggests that the Government would do well to take up the industry. He cites the case of Russia, which makes alcohol a Government monopoly. Russia is, of course, not exactly the model for a free country to form itself upon, generally speaking. But there may be exceptional reasons in this ease. Any move in the direction of cheap fuel would be welcome, especially if it took the shape of a large national profit in connection with what the Prohibitionists would call an innocent trade. The only way for a start would be to secure the option over the whole Queensland and Fijian output of molasses. How long the Governments of those countries would permit the resulting profitable monopoly to be enjoyed by this Dominion is another matter. Possibly the monopoly would find itself soon in the category of things that get short shrift At any rate, there is room for an inventor to extract the alcohol at the prico. or if an inventor is not required, the place will be for the first enterprising business trip that comes along.