Australia can boast of very large areas of shales: some deposits have been operated for several years, but others are still awaiting development. From a variety of causes, however, the shale-oil industry of Australia has never been set upon a profitable footing. The Commonwealth Oil Corporation some years ago set out to accomplish much, but the only thing which it seemed to do with energy was to sail to destruction. Its failure cannot be said to have been due to any absence of the material it set out to treat for petroleum, for at every turn enormous quantities were opened up. It would appear that the immensity of the possibilities which awaited its operations was one of the prime reasons for its premature decay, while there is no doubt that the system it employed was by no means the best for treating the shales. A more simple and less expensive method of retorting the shales would doubtless ensure successful working. In Queensland, Tasmania, and New Zealand the presence of these shales has been proved over extensive areas, and though for the most part they have so far been neglected, there is reason to hope that, in the not distant future, the advantage to be derived from their commercial exploitation will be the more widely appreciated. A most lucrative industry could be built up by the Commonwealth of Australia by the distillation of the torbanites there, and though, perhaps, it is too much to expect that an export trade in petroleum products could be built up, there is no doubt whatever that the large requirements for petroleum products in the Dominion could easily be met by the production from home sources. The possibilities of developing a shale industry in Africa are not particularly promising, though they are by no means out of the range of probability. In the coal series in the Transvaal, beds of what are known as “oil-shales” are encountered in several localities The seams generally are thin, and in some cases unworkable, but the material is very rich, and has proved capable of yielding high percentages of crude oil. In Sarawak (British North Borneo) the “Shell” Company is carrying out most important and highly successful developments, which are bound to have far-reaching and gratifying results in regard to developments under the British Flag. As I have shown, the problem of Imperial oil supply would be far on its way to solution by the development of the various shales in the British Empire, and the pity is that a more progressive policy has not been adopted in regard thereto long before the subject became of such pressing importance. Each of our Colonies--like the Mother Country--is a large consumer of petroleum products, and each is also totally dependent upon imported supplies, yet within the borders of each are to be found large deposits of the necessary crude material. CHAPTER XI PETROLEUM’S PART IN THE GREAT WAR