THE NEW ZEALAND TITANIC STEEL AND IRON COMPANY.

Press, Volume XXI, Issue 2401, 16 April 1873, Page 3

THE NEW ZEALAND TITANIC STEEL AND IRON COMPANY.

(From the " Wellington Independent.) The intelligence recently received by telegram from Taranaki, that the Provincial Council had passed the Bill leasing a portion of the beach to the New Zealand Titanic Steel and Iron Company is of a very satisfactory kind. The Bill provides that eight and a quarter miles of the iron-sand beach situated between the rivers Henui and Waitara should be leased to the company for a period of twenty-one years, with a right of renewal for a like term on very favorable terms. For the first year the company incurs no charge, but in the second and succeeding years a royalty of one shilling per ton on the steel and iron produced has to be paid. There are good grounds for the belief that this site, which is one of the best on the whole line of beach, contains a practically unlimited supply of the magnetic iron sand. Very recently two gentlemen of experience on the subject—Messrs Gledhill and Hammerton —made an inspection of a portion of the beach, and their report, which has not yet been published, sets all doubts at rest as to the abundance of the iron sand. On arriving at the east bank of the Henui river, they proceeded to dig for a considerable depth in several places with the following results :—ln the space situated between the sandhills and high water mark they found solid black iron sand to the depth of four feet, and no apparent change whatever at that depth. Previous experiments, moreover, in which the excavations have been much deeper, afford grounds for the belief that the deposit of iron sand varies from fifteen to thirty feet in depth. Nor must it be supposed that the actual accumulated deposits constitute the total of the supply, because practical men unite in the opinion that as often as the sand is partially removed the spring tides will deposit a f resb. supply of equal richness. Besides these rich deposits, the iron sand is also found in quantities quite sufficient to make its working profitable on those parts of the beach between high and low water mark. The surface in this locality is sometimes covered with a thin layer of beach, and iron sand mixed, but five inches lower a strata of pure magnetic iron sand is reached. Then there sometimes occurs another thin layer of beach sand, while below that a still richer deposit of the magnetic sand is to be found. From these and other existing data, it may be inferred that the supply of the raw material which the company proposes to work is practically unlimited. It seems strange that so lengthy a period should have elapsed before any practical effort on a scale sufficiently large has been made to turn this source of wealth to a profitable account. And yet this is not difficult of explanation. For many years the iron sand was regarded merely as a geological curiosity, and even when experimentally made into steel, circumstances combined to delay the execution of any project on a large scale for turning it to practical account. It is well known that the late B. Heydleback Davis, F.C.S. Charles Martin, and also another gentleman, had each in turn satisfied himself as to the payable character of the enterprise, and even made arrangements for sending out the necessary plant and machinery from England to establish a steel and iron manufactory, when death cut short their careers, and indefinitely shelved the undertaking. Thus it happened that a lengthened period elapsed before the project of utilising the iron sand again took practical shape. Meantime, an apparently interminable series of disputes arose as to the right to lease and work the beach where the ore was found, and till certain pretended claims had been investigated and disposed of, the field was practically closed. All these difficulties, however, are now surmounted, and the new company starts on a clear field unembarrased either |by interference or rivalry. We have been at some pains to investigate the data on which the company bases its hopes of success, and have come to the conclusion that they are of such a nature as to afford every reasonable probability that euch will in a great measure be achieved, should the enterprise be conducted with skill, prudence, and economy. Under any circumstances, the shareholders have the satisfaction of knowing that the payable character of the undertaking'will be thorougly tested before any large portion of the capital is expended in the erection of extensive plant and buildings. It may be said that Mr Smith's experiments made some eighteen months ago, went far to afford such an assurance, but when it is remembered that these were made upon a very limited scale, with a small furnace only costing £150, it will be admitted that however satisfactory the results may have been, yet something on a much larger scale must be tried before the feasibility of the undertaking as a paying commercial speculation can be demonstrated. This is precisely what the directors of the company intend in the first place to do. They propose to expend the sum of from £4000 to £5000 in the erection of a large modern blast furnace, with suitable plant, which it is estimated would produce fifty tons of iron per week. Assuming that this result is attained; that the per centage of metal produced from the iron sand is satisfactory, aud that the cost of fuel for smelting, wages, and other working expenses do not much exceed the amount at present estimated, then the undertaking will have become a proved success, and the directory would be fairly justified in embarking on those larger operations which are ultimately contemplated. We have reason to believe that some active steps iv the direction indicated, will, ere long, be taken. Already a large number of shares have been taken up in Wellington, while in other parts of the colony the project has been very favourably received. In many respects, indeed, the auspices under which this undertaking has been initiated

are of a most favourable kind. Its shareholders embrace every class of the community, from the working man r, - to the capitalist, and it i-i :: ;hj:o >• <i ! -iiy fact, that the largest hohlcs :\.rc pciro , s intimately connected with the iron trade. Then the collapse of the Auckland Company, which proposed to spend £2000 and give a large number of paid-up shares in ptirchasing the right to adopt the process of Messrs and Sutt-on— which at best was au expensive and wasteful one—readers it all the more likely that a liberal share of public support will be given to a scheme which, if successfully carried out, will utilise a valijabiy natural resource of the colony, add largely to its material wealth, and at the same time prove a lucrative source of profit to its projectors.