--- alias: - Chemical Technology Ltd category: Private Organization created: 2026-09-23 end: 2013 location: Clandeboye, Canterbury, New Zealand relations: - fn: 4 reverse: true type: director_of with: '[[Dorothy Verna Rutherford]]' start: 1981 summary: South Canterbury company, set up by the Christchurch lawyer John Rutherford, that built a whey-to-ethanol plant at Clandeboye with the American fugitive R.C. Horsch working under a stolen chemist's identity. tags: - Organization - NewZealand - Ethanol - AlternativeFuels - RCHorsch - IdentityFraud updated: 2026-09-23 --- Chemical Technology Limited was a [New Zealand](/places/new-zealand/) company at Clandeboye, near Timaru in South Canterbury, set up by the Christchurch lawyer [John Rutherford](/people/john-rutherford-new-zealand-lawyer/) to work on byproducts of milk. From about 1980 to 1984 its plant for converting whey into ethanol fuel was built and run by [R.C. Horsch](/people/rc-horsch/), an American fugitive from a Philadelphia methamphetamine charge who was working under the stolen identity of Dr. Stanley Stokowski, a [California](/places/california/) chemist, whose middle name the 1984 *Press* gives as Edward and the 2026 *Inquirer* as Eugene.[^1][^2][^3] ### Registration The company, registered as Chemical Technology Ltd, company number 141090, was incorporated on May 26, 1981, with its registered office at Ibis House, 183 Hereford Street, Christchurch. The register lists two directors, John Gordon Rutherford and Dorothy Verna Rutherford, who shared a Christchurch address; neither Horsch nor the name Stokowski appears among its officers. The register records the company as in receivership from its incorporation until December 17, 1984, and then as registered until it was removed from the register in November 2013.[^4] The company was "formed earlier this year," *The Press* reported in July 1981. On July 14, 1981, the Minister of Customs, Hugh Templeton, and the Minister of Energy, Bill Birch, announced that a licence had been approved for its distillery at Temuka, 15 kilometres north of Timaru, the first commercial distillery in the South Island, to produce industrial ethanol mainly from whey and beet crops; Birch said it would save 250,000 dollars a year in overseas funds. "Dr Stanly Stokowski, the director," said the 1.5 million dollar plant would be in full production of one million litres a year by the end of 1981, fed by 22 to 27 million litres of whey a year from the neighbouring dairy factory. "We will be solving a serious waste disposal problem," he said. The company planned to take damaged potatoes and off-grade grain, to make acetic acid, ethyl acetate, butanol, milk protein, carbon dioxide, and cattle feed, and to study gasohol fuels; it hoped the plant would serve as a pilot for a sugar-based chemical industry, was trialling Jerusalem artichokes, and spoke of expanding five to ten times.[^5][^6] Two regional development suspensory loans totalling 120,235 dollars were approved for it in 1981 on the recommendation of the South Canterbury Regional Development Council, and the Development Finance Corporation reported favourably on its viability.[^7] In December 1981 Rutherford, as a director, asked the Canterbury United Council to back ethanol in place of tetraethyl lead as an octane booster, to press for unleaded fuel from the Marsden Point refinery to be shipped to the South Island, and to seek removal of the tax on ethanol used for the purpose.[^8] The Minister of Science and Technology, Ian Shearer, opened the whey-to-alcohol factory in April 1982, remarking that it would turn what had twenty years earlier been "poured down the throat of a pig" into alcohol and proteins.[^9] Whey ethanol was then an established New Zealand industry: the technology for fermenting deproteinated whey into ethyl alcohol was bought from Ireland by the Anchor Ethanol Company in the late 1970s and used at plants at Tirau and Reporoa.[^10] ### Stokowski Rutherford told *The Press* in 1984 that he had contacted "Stokowski" "after reading American advertisements about new technology," and that the man was "brilliant and hard working" and "trained unskilled men in skills from welding to more complex tasks." Horsch had obtained the post with a forged [Stanford University](/organizations/stanford-university/) transcript in Stokowski's name.[^1][^2] A New Zealand government investigation into his admission to the country found that his papers included a transcript of a university degree, that the Department of Immigration had been "under some pressure" from his "proposed employer" to "make an early decision," and that "checks were not made with the Ministry of Energy and other Government departments." The real Stokowski later confirmed that the transcript was his.[^1] The *Philadelphia Daily News* reported at Horsch's sentencing in April 1985 that while on the run he had "helped design and build an ethanol plant for the New Zealand government."[^11] He was described in 1984 as a director of the plant who also ran a computer software exchange at Washdyke. Rutherford said the man had trained unskilled workers and that about eight jobs had been created, and that the company had not performed as well as expected late in 1983. Horsch said in 2013 that he had owned 80 percent of the distillery and signed his share over when he left.[^3][^12][^13] In March 1984 Horsch returned from a trip to the [United States](/places/united-states/) carrying several passports and on March 17 left New Zealand on another passport, which police believed had been stolen in a burglary at Temuka. Rumors followed that he was a Soviet or Bulgarian spy or was sought by the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/). Rutherford told *The Press* that his partner might have had trouble in the United States "perhaps of the scale of being a draft dodger during the [Vietnam War](/events/vietnam-war/)," dismissed the suggestion that he was a spy, and said of the company: "As far as I am concerned, it is business as usual."[^1] At police request the Fire Service drained a well at the plant in late May 1984, and Detective Superintendent R.N. MacDonald would not comment on reports that firearms and drugs had been found in it.[^14] Westpac put the company into receivership, with K.N. Curnow of Deloitte Haskins & Sells appointed receiver on May 22, 1984; Rutherford arranged to pay the bank about 170,000 dollars, and said the business made "a modest profit." Preferential tax debts remained.[^3][^12] In October 1984 he told *The Press* that business was booming, with protein and acetone planned, and that Horsch "had trained everybody up before he left."[^15] In 1986 the company was still producing alcohol from whey at Clandeboye and had grown Jerusalem artichoke varieties under quarantine for three years on Rutherford's farm at Moncks Spur on the Port Hills, as a possible feedstock.[^16] [^1]: Leask, Anna. "Man linked to multiple missing women in US had fled NZ 40 years ago after posing as scientist," *The New Zealand Herald,* September 23, 2026 (quoting *The Press* of 1984 and the New Zealand immigration investigation report). https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/raymond-horsch-man-linked-to-philadelphia-house-of-horrors-lived-near-timaru-under-stolen-name/BVQSWBL3LZDL3GIXFEHHBFY6RY/ [^2]: "How a pornographer's violent fantasies blurred fact and fiction as cops searched Olney house for missing women," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 2, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-philadelphia-missing-women-history-20260802.html [^3]: "Where has 'Dr Stokowski' gone?," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 9, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840609.2.9 [^4]: New Zealand Companies Office, Companies Register, "Chemical Technology Ltd," company number 141090 (incorporated May 26, 1981; status "In Receivership" May 26, 1981, to December 17, 1984; "Removed," updated November 3, 2013), accessed September 23, 2026. https://app.companiesoffice.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/141090 [^5]: "Ethanol plant at Temuka," *The Press* (Christchurch), July 15, 1981. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19810715.2.31 [^6]: "Ethanol by September," *The Press* (Christchurch), July 20, 1981 (Press Association, Wellington). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19810720.2.23 [^7]: "Impostor: immigration cleared of blame," *The Press* (Christchurch), October 3, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19841003.2.23 [^8]: "Ethanol study beyond council," *The Press* (Christchurch), December 11, 1981. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19811211.2.98 [^9]: "Dr Shearer wants extra effort in biotechnology," *The Press* (Christchurch), April 23, 1982. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19820423.2.96.9 [^10]: Hamilton, Ron. "The Manufacture of Ethanol from Whey," ed. Heather Wansbrough, Bioenergy Association of New Zealand, undated. https://www.bioenergy.org.nz/documents/resource/Reports/Manufacture-of-Ethanol-from-Whey-3H.pdf [^11]: Smith, Jim. "Fugitive's Luck Runs Out With 4-Year Jail Sentence," *Philadelphia Daily News,* April 27, 1985, p. 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/185948055/ [^12]: "Police look for U.S. chemist," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 6, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840606.2.48 [^13]: West, Ashley. "Ray Horsch: Sociopathic Villain," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 27, 2013, audio at 1:05:45 to 1:09:27 (audio preserved in a Wayback Machine capture of March 31, 2019). https://web.archive.org/web/20190331064614/http://traffic.libsyn.com/therialtoreport/27_Rialto_Report_027_-_Ray_Horsch__Sociopathic_Villain.mp3 [^14]: "Police seek wife, child," *The Press* (Christchurch), June 13, 1984 (Press Association, Timaru). https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840613.2.7 [^15]: "Ethanol plant's business booms," *The Press* (Christchurch), October 4, 1984. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19841004.2.21 [^16]: "Jerusalem artichokes as dual-purpose crop?," *The Press* (Christchurch), February 14, 1986. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19860214.2.93.1