SCARCITY OF IRON.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14711, 17 September 1918, Page 9

SCARCITY OF IRON.

MONEY IN SCRAP HEAPS,

KEEN DEMAND FOR ODDS AND

ENDS.

Never m the history of New Zealand has there been such a clearing-up of the country's old iron scrap-heaps as has taken place within the last three or iw yen,Y» oi' war. The piles of rusty horseshoes, formerly to bo seen outside many a blacksmith's shop, have long since disappeared, and fragments of disused machinery, old rails, broken-down and obsolete engines, and tall kinds of odefe and ends have been put to useful purpose after years of exposure to wind and weather.

New Zealand foundries aire now practically running on scrap-iron. This is freely admitted by _ their managers, to whom the second-hand dealer m this aommodity has become a person of considerable importance. "Wo are buying up every bit of old cast-iron we can lay our hands on," 1 said the manager of a well-known Auckland foundry last week. "We have always bought up certain quantities of scrap-iron, but now we are practically dependent on it. The castiron scraps are melted down and mixed with pig-iron, and m this way we are <ible to conserve our supplies of the latter. Before the war we paid about £3 x ton for old cast-iron, and are now paying £7. The price for new pig-iron which was formerly a little over £4 a ton. has now advanced to anything from £14 ..to £20. .The Home market is now closed, but- we are still .getting a. little from, India, and Australia, the embargo on export from tike latter countiy having rrecently been .lifted." The : advance m the price of- wrought iron is said, to be even greater, supplies of new material being practically unprocurable. Steel plates- fpj* instance, formerly costing £10 per<'_,ton,,..arg' _' now. difficult, to procure at £_5. All kinds of sdraps of wrought iron are being bought fpr useful *purpqses, and the sec-ond-hand dealer who m old 1 times was content, to sell at 30s or £2 a ton was now receiving £40 for the same stuff. Old boiler plates, ' mining vats, bar and sheet iron, are stated 1 to be m great demand, these being hammered down and worked up again into ship's . plates, iron bars, arid also used for odds and ends m repair work.