WHITE ISLAND.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1405, 3 April 1912, Page 7

WHITE ISLAND.

PURCHASED BY A BIG COMPANY. SULPHUK DEPOSITS TO BE WOKKKD. White Island, in the Bay of Plenty, has been throwing off sulphurous'fumes and billows of steam ever since the coming of the white man to-New Zealand and as long before as the Maori history of the place goes. One knows it as an island, perpetually on fire, with its craters filled witn boiling sulphur. An attempt was made to work the sulphur,, deposits iu 18SG, but since then tne furnaces of Nature have rumbled and spiuttered away, but seldom even observed of man. Another fate is in store lor While Island. Some time ago a number of gentlemen who know all there is to be known about sulphur, sent an expert engineer to inspect the island. On his report the island was purchased, and the tompauy registered in Vancouver, U.C., entitled the White Island Sulphur Company, Ltd., was formed with a capital of -CIOOjOOO, to take steps to work the deposits. In the venture is a good deal of English .capital, some Canadian, and Australian capital, of which .1:75,000 is paid up. Other evidence of the company's promised activities is the presence in Wellington of Mr. J. Gordon Mngee, C.E., of \ aucouver, 8.C., who has come to New Zealand in connection with the preliminary steps to. he taken in connection with the establishment of the new industry. "Unless three'good men arc all out of it," he said yesterday, "I think we will have work, perhaps, for twelve or fifteen years. According to their reports, there is 750,000 tons of sulphur there, which can be made , marketable. That might be an outside estimate, still, there is enough to keep us going for at least ten years. This is the largest deposit known south of the Line. The largest output in the world is from Louisiana,' which puts out about half a million tons a year. Nevada's output is about 150,000. Japan is the supplier of the East, and Canada imports a good deal from that country. Zealand imported about 4200 tons last year, and Australia 22,000 tons (mostly from Japan). If the proposed reciprocal trade tariff between Australia, Now Zealand, and Canada conies to fruition, wo have little doubt that we will be able to do a good deal of business with Canada, and will certainly get the Australasian trade."

Asked as to the chief commercial uses sulphur is put to, Mr. Magee said it was largely used in the preparation of explosives, in the manufacture of sheepdips, and subsequently in the preparation of the wool. Sulphur was also used in the manufacture of wood pulp (for paper-making), and had lots of medicinal and chemical properties which made it valuable. "New Zealand sulphur is particularly free from impurities, which gives it an advantage over the Japanese and American product. Recently the Tea Planters' Association of Ceylon wrote to a Government Department here praising the quality of YvlTite Island sulphur, which had l>een used in the preparation of an antiparasite solution for spraying the tea trees. Its purity gave ft distinct advantages over sulphur from other countries. Steps are to be taken at onco to import a plant. In some cases the plant consisted of grinding machinery and retorts. Mr. Mageo was not sure yet if the grinding machinery would be necessary on Whits Island. The necessary plant consisted of a huge cast-iron retort, divided near the bottom with a grating of close set bars. The first act towards making sulphur marketable was to fill the retort with the rough lumps, close down the top. and then admit a. stream of superheated steam into the lower chaml.-er nt a temperature- of about 1U degrees Fahr. This gradually melted the sulphur, which dripped through the bars, and ran awav through a Msnm-packed pipe, into a cooling bath (which wu.s also provided with a steam box, in order to regulate the cooling-off process). The sulpnur could then be run into moulds, where it solidified whilst retaining its natural colour. .Most of the impurities disappeared in ■ steam, but in some eases—notably in Japanese sulphur—these were more difficult ta get rid of. One of the by-pro-ducts of sulphur reduction was gypsum, a commodity largely used in cementmaking. Mr. Mageo will probably leave for Auckland to-day.