IRON FROM SAND

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19365, 1 July 1937, Page 12

IRON FROM SAND

s ■ TARANAKI PROJ^pf i t 1 HARBOUR BOARD’S rj'EK.MS ; USE OF. NEW PLYMOUTH s PORT i 5 Since all the negotiations between ’ the New Plymouth and Patea Harbour Boards and the Duflield Corporation t regarding ironsand development have been confidential, the boards will not ■ yet disclose the extent to which the • arrangements for the establishment of 1 the new industry have been advanced. 1 The New Plymouth board has had i negotiations on many occasions with persons anxious to tost the potential!*, i ties of Taranaki sand, rind samples 1 have been sent away from time to ; time, but little more has been heard , of the matter. What the board has had to watch is ' the danger of any group of persons obtaining any rights or options for purely speculative purposes which might delay the real intention to commence operations. It has also the duty of seeing that any rights or privileges accorded to any commercial undertaking do no ( t endanger the future of the harbdur or risk:-the destruction of beaches*.

Harbour Board’s Conditions The chairman of the New Plymouth board, Mr. C. 11. Bellringer, said that the board had laid down certain conditions which were considered reasonable. One was lhat any works contemplated in connection with the industry must be elected within a reasonable distance of New Plymouth and that the 'export of the product of the undertaking must be shipped through the port Of New Plymouth. Provision was also made for the payment of royalties. Aity agreement entered into for such purpose, however, has to have the final sanction of the Government. Mr. Bellringer said that the best and largest deposits of suitable sand at New Plymouth were between the mouth of the Henui River and the mouth of the Wanongona River, the section between the Henui and the Wniwakaiho being a particularly good area. It was thought that the drift of sand along the coast probably resulted in a big deposit coming ashore in that locality, and the board’s dredging, in which approximately 200,000 tons of sand was annually deposited at sea, might also affect the position. Deposits on the Oakura side of the port were not considered sufficient to justify their being exploited. Until the matter has been considered by the board, the secretary of the Patea board is not in a position to make any statement on the subject. He said it would come before the board at its next meeting, and he expected the undertaking woulcl then become public property.