ROMANCE OF TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 114, 16 May 1929, Page 27

ROMANCE OF TRADE.

KAURI) ISLAND PHOSPHATE. LUCKY PIECE OP ROCK. HOW A BIG DISCOVERY WAS MADE. That there is romance In industry was "abundantly proved by the address which Mr. A. P. Ellis, New Zealand's representative on the British Phosphate Commission, gave yesterday to the members of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce at their weekly luncheon. Mr. Ellis traced the growth ot tne industry from small beginnings, some 40 or 50 years ago, to the present day, when between 550,000 and 600,000 tons are being marketed. He said nearly 70 years had elapsed since American pioneers began the trade in phosphatic guano from the Phoenix Islands, so™ 6 800 miles north of Samoa. In 1870 a prospecting expedition went past Nauru Island and Ocean Island, up to the Gilberts, the Marshalls, and the Carolines, without finding further deposits which appeared to be of commeicial "value. Some years later the firm of John T. Arundel and Co., who had been associated with the well-known firm of Holder Bros., worked islands in various parts of the Pacific. Forty-two years have elapsed since Mr. Ellis joined the business which is Bow :known as the British Phosphate Commission. He described in interesting fashion how it was found the Nauru Island rock was of commercial value. A block of stone which was used to keep the door of the Sydney laboratory open attracted the attention of Mr. Ellis as being phosphatic rock. This proved to be the case, and the rock was traced to Nauru Island. Negotiations with the former German led to the trade being commenced, and, in 1900, the Pacific Islands Company started operations. The business prospered, and at the end of the war negotiations between the British, Australian and New Zealand Governments led to the inauguration of the business of the British Phosphate Commission. Mr. Ellis expressed the opinion that the island phosphate trade would be developed still further, and that an annual output of a million tons was not by any means an unreasonable estimate.