DISAPPOINTING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 126, 31 May 1939, Page 10

DISAPPOINTING

IRON ORE DEPOSITS

MINISTER'S DISCLOSURE

STATE PROJECT

(Special to the "Evening Post.")

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day.

Supplies of iron ore on the Onekaka field are not there in anything like the quantities originally expected by the Government. This was stated definitely by the Minister of Industries and Commerce (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) in an address last evening. But it is still likely that the proposed State iron and steel project will be started.

Mr. Sullivan disclosed the position at Onekaka when emphasising the difficult task New Zealand might have to face in the event of war, in maintaining industrial activity. "If Great Britain found herself unhappily at war with three powerful antagonists (whom I shall not name) this country would for a period of time (.which I cannot estimate) be isolated," he said. "That is nearly as certain as anything in this world can be certain. The general problem of the supply of war materials is a most difficult and urgent one in the light of this situation, and the condition of our depleted overseas funds, and it is one that we are making the greatest possible endeavours to meet.

"Perhaps the greatest necessity of all is the establishment of the iron and steel industry, because that industry is the basis of the munition industry and the basis of a great many other industries. We are trying to establish that industry and we have in New Zealand at the moment two of the most competent British experts available in the United Kingdom surveying our resources, and they will report to us very shortly now on the whole proposition.

"We have been disappointed over the iron ore supplies at Onekaka. We were assured by scientists in the first place that there were at least 100,000,000 tons of iron ore—perhaps hundreds of millions of tons. Well, we have carried out very thorough exploratory work—infinitely more than was ever done by private enterprise— and I am sorry to say that the supplies are not there in anything like the quantities we were led to believe. Due, however, to technical progress made during the last year or two—even since the Iron and Steel Bill was passed—it is probable that we will have available to us alternative and supplementary supplies of raw materials that will enable us to have our industry—an industry very necessary to us on the triple grounds of defence, economics, and finance."