OUR IRON SAND AND MR EDWARDS' OPINION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8941, 4 January 1888, Page 3

OUR IRON SAND AND MR EDWARDS' OPINION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —Will you kindly insert tho following in answer to Mr Wynn Edwards' remarks about the production of iron from the sand' So far as the working of New Zealand iron" sand is concerned, it is no more or less than a magnetic oxide in the shape of sand, instead of iron ore, and it ib a well-known fact that the ironsand of New Zealand contains 50 per cent of metallic iron, and no iron manufact"er who knows his business would find any difficulty in extracting the iron from it and converting it into pig-iron. To my own knowledge good pig-iron was produoed at laranaki some ton years ago from the ironsand. Five tons of the sand and five tons of the said pig were forwardod to me at the Lithgow Iron Works, and this was worked up sue cessfully. It must be borne in mind, that all iron ores require roasting before being charged into the blast furnace. Having made some twenty thousand tons of Dieiron at the Lithgow Works, New South Wales, I feel confident in bating the above, viz,, that the black sand of New Zealand can be made into pig iron with a mixture of clay-band or hematite atone, of which we have abundance. As an iron manufacturer of upwards of forty years' standing, I never heard of any iron masters paying such wages ias from 16s to 25s per week. I fancy Mr. Edwards must have made a mistake as to the term; he must have meant per day Labourers might be secured for the sum mentioned, but skilled workmen certainly could not, and as for the statement that four families live in one house, it certainly does not reflect very mnoh credit on the master who employs them. I am aware that jackets are a very good invention for certain purposes, but are perfectly useless for blast furnaces, or any furnaces for the manufacture of iron. No wonder the workmen ask tor protection in the colonies, if their fellow.labourers receive the wattes stated by Mr. Edwards.—l am, &c., Onehunga Ironworks. Enoch Hughes. i P.S.—The cost of producing iron can only be ascertained by the quality and price at which all materials can be laid down at the works; the labour question on the manufacture of pig-iron being paid at per ton.