COAL AND IRON ORE

Otago Witness, Issue 3595, 6 February 1923, Page 25

COAL AND IRON ORE

NEW ZEALAND MOTOR TRADE. REPORT BY MAJOR E. A. BELCHER, (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 14. Iron deposits in New Zealand formed the subject of one of Major E. A. Belcher’s reports to the Committee of the Empire Exhibition. This has been circulated among all the- principal newspapers of Great Britain. New Zealand, says Major Belcher, offers an attractive field for {he investment ot British capital. The most remarkable resources awaiting development are the iron ore deposits of Parapara, It is estimated that there are over 60,000,000 tons of ore, containing between 45 per cent, and 50 per cent, of metallic iron. Adjoining these enormous deposits are almost unlimited coalfields, and both are close to the deep-sea anchorage of Golden Bay. This is too big an undertaking to be handled with New Zealand capital, and unless some British corporation undertakes the work it will fall into the hands of Americans. If British capital is employed, a subsidiary British undertaking might find a market for the iron in the Far East and in South America. Coal seams, especially on the West Coast of the South Island, are still capable of a great deal of development, and the imreased attention now being paid to hydro-electric power should make tlie coal of greater importance, whether it is brown, lignite, or bituminous. It is .not easy, to describe in detail the specific development schemes awaiting capital. Some of them would need only a small amount of financial help. One industry calling for special mention is motor manufacturing. At present; New Zealand is importing motoryears every, year to the value 1 of over, £I,SOO,fXKK ~ all this money

is spent in the United States, principally on account of the cheaper price of American cars, hut also tiecauaa of the better system of distribution and stocking of spare parts If any English firm can be induced to produce a satisfactory overseas model, there should be a big market for it in New Zealand, sis well as in Australia and Africa. It should be worth examining whether it would not pay to send the chassis only, and come to an arrangement with a coachbuilder’s firm for locally-made bodies and with an engineering firm for the manufacture of spare parts.