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SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
the Institute of Science and Industry would be called in, will therefore 
be welcomed by those who have given any thought to the question. 
Experts are agreed that the supply of petrol must in the not-distant 
future inevitably fail. 
Every year the world’s demand is increasing prodigiously, and the 
price is rising. In the United States of America alone, notwithstand- 
ing civilian economies to make provision for war requirements, the 
consumption increased from 1,200,000,000 ‘gallons in 1914 to 
2,680,000,000 gallons in 1918—an increased annual consumption in 
five years of 1,480,000,000 gallons. To the enormous growth of road 
motoring during recent years there will now be added the requirements 
of high-grade petrol for aeroplanes and airships. Commenting upon 
this point, His Majesty’s Petroleum Executive, in a report of the 
Inter-departmental Committee on various matters concerning the pro- 
duction and utilization of alcohol for power and traction purposes, 
asserts that “no limits can be assigned” to the development that may 
be anticipated in those directions alone. “ Whilst it is impossible for 
us,” states the report, “to forecast the development of total petrol con- 
sumption of all countries, and for all purposes, facts are not wanting 
to indicate the likelihood in the not-distant future of so great a pressure 
of demand as to cause, at any rate, a very high level of prices, and we 
are satisfied that close investigation should now proceed with the object 
of providing alternative supplies of motor fuels derived from new or 
supplementary raw materials.” 
The main question affecting the use of power-aleohol is one of price. 
Investigation of the problem was delayed in Great Britain in 1905 until 
such time as there might be an approximation between the prices of 
petrol and spirit sufficient to create a practical alternative of choice 
between the two. The Expert Committee in Great Britain has now 
reported that “ we are satisfied that the time has come for Government 
action, which should pay due heed to both current and prospective prices 
for petrol, or other petroleum products, benzol, and alcohol motor fuel 
or its admixtures.” Under the pressure of war stimulus the production 
of industrial alcohol in the United States of America increased from 
14,000,000 gallons in 1915 to 50,000,000 gallons in each of the years 
1916, 1917, and 1918. 
Comparing economic conditions as they exist in Great Britain and 
in Australia to-day, and having regard to the possibilities for enormous 
agricultural expansion in this country, Australia is in a better position, 
perhaps, to encourage the production. of power-alcohol than is the 
Mother Country. The Institute of Science and Industry has already 
issued a report upon the yield of alcohol obtainable locally from various 
substances, and it has investigated the most likely of our raw materials. 
From the technological stand-point, the ideal raw material is sugar 
molasses, of which Queensland produces annually 10,000,000 gallons. 
The possible sources of the supply of power-alcohol are inexhaustible, 
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