TARANAKI STEEL AND IRON COMPANY.

Press, Volume XXXI, Issue 4264, 29 March 1879, Page 2

TARANAKI STEEL AND IRON COMPANY.

By recent telegrams it will have been observed that tbe Tara__i Steel and Iron Company, which for a long time occupied a dark corner in the background of obso-rity, has made sn effort once again, to spring into Hfe and prominence. As a matter of fact, tha company never did get beyond the state of infancy, and at the best _sp_y_ much constitutional weakness. The, plant having been erected at Cs_*Bdffl»ble cost, very little progms- was made beyon-ttl&t,-Ul_-M-gCall j murmurings would reach the head office at Wellington from all parts of the colony, -*•—■ —-•**- , roads by the then

sodona—, and the

the affairs of the company t«*o_f—', aad explain what had been done, as the " how-not-to-do-it" pMfr_jfjteappear to enter largely into all prowith the concern, no veryj l sat-sfsctorj-; iwue out of their trouble could" wellb* arrived at. Bnt.asabovestated,another, , andrapparently more vigorous effort, has been Eaadeto do something. This increase of energy been brought about by the inheld out by the Government for t__V___n6 of capital in the manufacture of railway material from iron made out of New Zealand ore. At this etage, therefore, it m-iy not be out of place to give a brief description of the Taranaki Bteel and Iron :'Workl^ot.ltot:ffl«~^«^«Bwof*-whkb, per?, haps, many people in the colony are not aware, whilst a very large number can have no Jdea of -their., extent. It is .some years and— plant * j —ere-! erected at very great expaise. They stand on a rise opposite the beach about three-quarters of a mile from New Plymouth, and from a distance present something of the appearance of pottery works. The buildings are extensive, and everything necessary to the manufacture of iron is on the ground, a considerable Sirtion of the plant having been brought from ngland. The iron sand which it was proposed to utilise is thrown up, on the beach immediately iv front of, and at a convenient distance from, the works. It is conveyed in carts from the beach and made into bricks with an ad—xtuK), of day, which has. been found'to be the best method of * carrying it through the process of smelting. Several trials of tbe sand have been made in the past, but no satisfactory; result was obtained, although a test made by an eminent firm of founders in Scotland proved very successful, iron of a superior quality being manufactured from a parcel of sand sent home to be tested. ' From this it would appear that the want of success at the works in Taranaki was due either to some defect in the machinery, or an error, in. the modut operandi! Be that as it may, the check thus received in in the first instance seemed to oast a damper on tile enterprise, tbe works were allowed to lie idle, and the company Bank into obliyion, from which it Was oc_io_aliy-rescued"or. dragged forth by stray members of an inquisitive turn of mind. Now, another attempt, and one of a more energetic character than that referred to, has been made to utilise the works erected at so much cost, and possibly this time the shareholders, scattered, all over the colony, from Auckland to the Bluff, w_ hay the satisfaction of feeling that they did not spend their money in vain.