ROMANTIC HISTORY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 245, 13 September 1935, Page 12

ROMANTIC HISTORY

A PIECE OF ROCK. KEY TO PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY. AUCKLAND, Sept. LI. Behind a dirty greyish-brown piece of stone displayed on a stand in tlie window of a Irookseller in Queen Street lies the romantic history of the phosphates on Nauru Island the total annual output of which is worth £4,000,000. The stone, which is not more than a foot in diameter and bears a close resemblance to pumice, is being displayed through the courtesy of Dir Albert F. Ellis, New Zealand member of the British Phosphate Commission. This piece of rock is that which Mr Ellis noticed was being used for keeping the door open at the Sydney office of the London firm of John T. Arundel and Company, in which Dir Ellis was employed. On telling the manager that it resembled Baker Island nhospbate rock, ho was informed that it was a specimen from Nauru, and had already been classified as fossilised wood. It was some three months later that Dir Ellis carried out preliminary tests for phosphoric acid, which resulted in a strong reaction. A complete analysis proved the rock to be phosphate of the highest quality. Excitement ran high, and this discovery was ultimately the key which unlocked the riches of Nauru. “I have kept that price of rock ever since,” said Dir Ellis in an interview. “It has quite a sentimental value in my eyes. It was kept for some considerable time in the Melbourne office of Arundel and Company, but when the company was brought out by the British, Australian and New Zealand Governments, I applied to the directors m London for possession. Since then it has always been with me, and has occupied a prominent place in my home. I suppose it will ultimately find its way into some museum, possibly that in Auckland, but I have not yet definitely decided.”