The Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 1937. Wealth in Ironsand

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 149, 25 June 1937, Page 4

The Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 1937. Wealth in Ironsand

After many disappointments it would seem that Taranaki’s dream of becoming a great iron-producing centre stands a fair chance of realisation. The millions of tons of ironsand strewn along the sea coast from Wanganui to New Plymouth have acted like a magnet for many years, tilling imaginative schemers from all parts of the world with visions of untold wealth.

The late Mr. E. M. Smith, M.H.R. (father of the present member for New Plymouth) made himself nationally famous from the ’nineties onwards for his enthusiastic advocacy of the virtues of ironsand, and as recently as a year ago cargoes Were taken to Japan to be tested and experimented with in the hope of producing an efficient and payable product.

If the British company can substantiate the claims it makes in the Press Association message published in this issue, then a new era of prosperity will be ushered in for Taranaki in particular and the Dominion in general. More than anything else just now New Zealand needs large-scale industries suoli as the one under review. The production of iron has all the merits and none of the demerits of those secondary industries for the establishment of which so much argument has been poured forth in recent years.

New Zealand certainly needs secondary industries, but the problem of their establishment is complicated by the fact that almost all of those suggested would come into competition with products from Britain and other of the Dominion’s customers, thus complicating our trade relations, and by necessitating protective tariffs increasing costs to the consumer.

With lai’ge-scale production of iron, however, New Zealand would not be a competitor with the Motherland, which has to import over £5,000,000 worth of pig iron per year to make up for her deficiency in that essential raw material. Japan also is sadly in need of just the product Taranaki may be able to supply, while many other markets would also welcome these wares.

That New Zealand has need of such industries has long been recognised. As far back as 1914 the Government passed an Act having for its object the payment of fairly large bonuses for the production in the Dominion of pig iron, puddled bar iron and steel.

While there is an element of romance in the prospect of a half-forgotten town like Patea suddenly becoming an industrial centre, there is not a little irony in the fate which may as a result overtake Nelson’s valient efforts to turn the provinces ’s huge iron-ore deposits into profitable enterprise. It is estimated by the “Iron Ore Resources of the World” published by the International Geological Congress that the deposits in the Nelson province contain 64,000,000 metric tons, of which about 30,000,000 tons occur in the Onakaka block. There is a possibility certainly of large-scale rehabilitation of the Onakaka enterprise in the near future, but to date little success has attended the efforts there.