ONEKAKA DISTRICT

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 143, 20 June 1938, Page 10

ONEKAKA DISTRICT

IRON, COAL, AND LIMESTONE MINISTER'S INSPECTION (By Telegraph—Press Association.) j NELSON, This Day. For the purpose of making a personal inspection of investigational surveys in connection with iron, coal, and limestone deposits in Golden Bay, the Minister of Industries and Commerce (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) has been in the Onekaka district since Friday. Accompanied by Dr. Henderson, geologist, and Mr. Bromley, of the Employment Department, the Minister has made a comprehensive tour which has included an inspection of every block of ore and limestone deposits where tunnelling work is in progress. He also visited Mt. Burnett and the Puponga Coal Mines. Interviewed prior to leaving for Christchurch, Mr. Sullivan said that the Department was paying the same careful \ attention to limestone and coal deposits as it was to iron ore with a view to gaining definite knowledge that materials were there and to what extent. At the present time 70 men were employed tunnelling at each block of iron deposits. He had seen results to date, but the materials would be subject to assay in Wellington for an exact determination of their quality and the quantities of ore available. The prospecting work was as comprehensive as possible and would deal with every phase of the project. Reports giving the conclusions of experts now at work would be placed before the Department as soon as possible, said the Minister, but of course it was too early to make any prediction on the nature of those reports. However, the Minister expressed himself as being reasonably happy about the prospects.