PART II. 
Petrol is landed in England to-day at a price which enables it to 
be retailed at 1s. 6d. per bulk gallon, and there appears to be no reason 
why it should not be delivered to Mombasa at the same price. With 
serious competition it could be marketed at a little less than this, and 
if power spirit is to compete with petrol in East Africa, the production 
costs must be low enough to combat a fall in the Mombasa price of 
petrol, exclusive of import duty or taxes, to about 1s. 6d. per gallon. 
For export, power spirit would have to be delivered to seaboard 
for something less than 1/- per gallon, which appears not to be possible 
on account of rail freight. 
Cost or PropuciNg Avrconor: The cost of manufacturing alcohol 
from cane molasses has been estimated at 4d. to 5d. per gallon, 
including interest on capital and depreciation of plant. Heriot at a 
meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry, 1915, quoted actual 
figures from the balance sheet of a Demerara Distillery showing the 
cost of producing 909, alcohol to be as low as 3d. per gallon, but 
he estimated the cost of 959 alcohol to be 5d. per gallon. 
In 1920, alcohol was produced in Cuba from cane sugar residues 
for 63d. per gallon and retailed at 10d., and during the same year in 
Brazil the retail price was 9d. per gallon. 
Fuel accounts for 80—509% of the manufacturing costs and 
according to the South African Sugar Journal, 1920, the coal consumed 
in making one gallon of alcohol was stated to be 7—8 Ibs. Coal is 
imported into Mombasa in large quantities for about Shs. 32/- per ton 
and is conveyed to any station on the main line in 20 ton lots at a 
flat rate of Shs. 20/- per ton. 
Therefore the probable cost of coal at any station, including 
freight and handling charges, is about Shs. o6/- per ton. Assuming 
it to be as high as Shs. 65/- the coal required for producing 1 gallon 
of aleohol would cost not more than 8d. Wood should be cheaper 
still and by doubling the fuel cost, 5d.—6d. is obtained as the average 
cost of producing a gallon of alcohol. 
On the other hand the Crown Agents for the Colonies give the 
fuel consumption as 15 lbs. of coal and although this probably refers 
to the manufacture from starchy material, in which extra power is 
required for the preliminary conversion of the starch to fermentable 
sugars, the difference between a consumption of 7 and 15 Ibs. of coal 
is difficult to explain. With a coal consumption as high as this the 
cost of manufacturing a gallon of aleohol would be just over 10d. 
Desborough, also, at a meeting of the Society of Chemical 
Industry, 1920, estimated the cost of manufacturing 959 alcohol from 
starchy material to be 9d. per gallon. This included depreciation of 
plant, but did not include the interest on capital which he calculated 
at 4d. per gallon, thus bringing the cost, apart from that of the raw 
material to 1s. 1d. per gallon. For the interest on capital to be 50 
per cent. of all other charges appears extraordinarily high, and it is 
probable that these figures are above normal, and were based on post- 
war industrial conditions in England. 
To etherise alcohol for the production of a motor spirit probably 
costs 2d. or 3d. per gallon, and assuming the average cost of producing 
one gallon of alcohol to be 6d. power spirit could be placed on the local 
market only if the raw material for making one gallon were purchased 
for not more than 5d. 
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