Salt and the Salt Union.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 4982, 15 April 1889, Page 3

Salt and the Salt Union.

The collection and preparation of salt is a most importont industry, and involves in Great Britain alone a capital of several millions sterling. Tho United Kingdom produces about 2,200,000 tons ; Europe, about 3,000,000 ; North America, 1,000,000 ; and Asia and Africa another 1,000,000 : making a total of 7,200,000. About 750,000 tons of this is consumed by British metallurgists and chemical manufacturers. It is employed in in the manufacture of soap and glass, in taning, glazing, pottery, and in many other trades and manufactures, and also largely in agriculture, Salt is for the most part obtained in three ways; from tho evaporation of natural brime, from artificial brine, and from dry mines of rock salt. In Cheshire, a natural brine is found at a depth of 120 ft to 150 ft from the surface. There the rain-water easily finds its way to the salt, which it readily dissolves, and tho brine runs for miles on tho surface of tho rock-salt or “ salt-head," as it is called, and it is only necessary to sink a shaft this short distance to oblain the natural brine. On tho Tees the conditions are altogether different in two essential points. There is no natural brine, and the rock-salt is about 10 times the depth, and the rocks immediately overlying

the salt are impervious to the water contained in such quantities in the sandstone above the marls. Here shafts are sunk and flooded with water, which is pumped up again at other shafts, saturated with salt. At Droitwich there are salt springs yielding 45 per cent of salt, and from these springs 260,000 tons of salt are annually obtained. The American method of production is similar to that of England. In Poland there are immense mines of salt rock. In many Continental countries salt is obtained by evaporating sea-water. The formation of the Salt Union a year ago was, it has been explained, due to the insane competition among producers, so that while it costs 4s 6d to produce a ton, its sale price was forced down to 2s 3d., although the price for domestic use was kept up to £4 13s 4d, or £d a pound, the enormous difference in price being all secured by middlemen, and so, in order to secure a fair return to manufacturers, the union, the formation of which had been suggested 16 years ago, was carried into effect.