ASBESTOS AT TAKAKA, NELSON .

A company with the title the New Zealand Asbestos Company is being formed to work what is believed to be an immense deposit oE t asbestos lately discovered in the Takaka Valley, Nelson. From what we can learnTroux the representative of the company at present in Dunedin, a new and important industry is about to be developed. Of ttve value of asbestos as a commercial commodity there can be no doubt, and its uses are constantly increasing. Already ifc is used in packing steam joints in engines, as fire felt for boiler covers, roofing, lining for safes and deed boxes, mill board for non-conducting lining, safety lamps, gas stoves, paints, cement felts, boot soles, and many other purposes, being a, non-conductor of both heat and cold. Woven into cloth, ib is employed for stokers' gloves and aprons, firemen's shields and clothes, ropes for fire escape?, carpets, theatre drop curtains, &c. Asbestos powder is already largely used in making paint. The Fisheries Exhibition was entirely covered with it, and the rate of insurance was consequently reduced 50 per cetit. .As a cement it is used to line walls and ceilings, and worked upon a wire foundation it is employed as a substitute for friezes and wall plaster. A house can now be built that is practically indestructible by fire. As to the quality of the Takaka fibre, Euglish, American, German, and colonial experts, we are informed, agree in placing it so high that there can be no doubt as to its value, and the quantity is said feo be equally well assured. Mr J. S. Browning, ls.te conimis* sioner of Crown lands, Nelson, cays that about the centre of the property on the moutain sidt there lies a continuous face of about 1500Ifc in length, and from 60ft to 70ft in height, showing fibre freely, which admits of being easily quarried. A few chains below there is a similar face about 1000 ft in length showing fibre freely, as do the spurs on both sides of Asbestos Creek. Altogether there is ample ground for believing that the New Zealand Asbestos Company is on the eve of making an important addition to tht profitable industries of the colony.