FUTURE OF THE NORTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17956, 5 December 1921, Page 10

FUTURE OF THE NORTH.

. m .1, , I INDUSTRIAL OPENINGS. FIELDS EOR ENTERPRISE. ' IMMENSE POSSIBILITIES. It would be difficult to name any area of similar size in the Southern Hemisphere where there are go many sound and genuine opportunities for developing new industries as in North Auckland. The untapped resources of the North are the amazement of every visitor who takes the trouble to ascertain and verify the facts. Valuable sand deposits exist in two far Northern fields of vast extent. The sand of these deposits is that very fine quality so essential to glass making. Containing 98 per cent, of pure silica, these North Auokland sand fields are estimated to provide an unrivalled supply of the best glass-making sand available in the world. A few miles north'of Whangarei there are the valuable cinnabar areas of Puhipuhi. These areas have been carefully prospected, and their development is only a question of capital and plant. The existence of valuable lodes has been veri- - fied, and the tests have established an unusually high percentage of mercury. Two companies are at work in this promising field, and several small private syndicates are dealing with their own claims. In various parts of North Auckland there are valuable and almost inexhaustible fields of hydraulic and agricultural lime. The former is partly tapped by the Portland Cement Company. There is a big opportunity waiting in the development of the latter. Opening Goal Mines. A large area of North Auckland has been reported upon in successive geological surveys, as rich in coal seams. Recently, under complete eleotrio equipment, supplied from Whangarei, the Kamo mine has been very successfully reopened. A new mine is under equipment at Hikurangi, of which, it may be said, that the engineering resources of the world have been visited and ransacked to furnish the mine, with the best machinery that modern invention and scientific experience can provide. Electric installations of light and power will be a prominent feature throughout this mine, ine capacity of the mine, when completed and in full production, is expected to record 1500 tons. A Fruit-growing Paradise. Fruit growing and fruit canning are great potential industries that the climate and facilities of the Whangarei district and North Auckland generally should make very attractive snd profitable. The orchard possibilities of North Auckland havo never been adequately developed. The first prize show successes of those firms in the Whangarei district who have undertaken the business in a systematic and scientific manner have estaolished beyond doubt the immense field of opportunity that still awaits the enterprise of the qualified orchardist and fruit grower. The present harvests of fruit, produced easily and exuborantly in this luxuriant climate, could be very profitably improved and conserved if a canning factory were available to deal with them. The existent* of good waterways, shipping facilities, unlimited electric power and water supply, together with the rapidly approaching completion of the great North Railway connecting with Auckland and Wellington, combine to present these two industrial opportunities of the North in an unusually favour- , able light. Other Opportunities. Other industries that offer very profitable openings in the North are flax-mill-ing, woollen mills, and. fish canning. There are extensive areas of flax land; the climate is not unsuitable to woollen industries; the superabundant supplies of fish in all the bays of the North, especially in Russell and Whangarei suggest that a fish canning industry would' become quite shortly a big and profitable concurn. A little while ago furniture making, brickmaking, carriage and motor body building, engineering works, poultry farming and market gardening, might have been mentioned among the inviting opportunities to break new ground. In afi these industries, however, enterprising firms and individuals have got to work in recent years. Several new market gardens and poultry farms on scientific lines have been commenced recently, and existing farms and gardens have been developed to keep pace with progress. New brickworks have bden commenced at Kamo, with a rapidly increasing output. There are four new furniture factories, all busy. Two large firms of carriage and motor body builders have made such progress that their premises had to be enlarged. Two firms of carriage painters and upholsterers have opened premises in the last twelve months. Engineering Worts. The town of Whangarei is served by a good half-dozen motor garages, with commodious accommodation and engineering departments, and besides these, there are extensive works devoted to general and marine engineering. There are also i several firms of launch and boat builders, . but so far shipbuilding may be said to b e among the industries awaiting development. Attention to this will probably be stimulated by the publicity the district will obtain in connection with the har- , bonr improvement scheme.