N.Z. EMENT.

Southland Times, Issue 20016, 2 November 1926, Page 2

N.Z. EMENT.

BIG FUTURE DEMAND CERTAIN. That the near-future demand for N.Z cement wiU be on an unprecedented scale is indicated by a news item published in the Daily News on August 14th. This states that British machinery and equipment for some of N.Z.’s great hydroelectric power projects will be contracted for if Mr. F. W. Furkert is successful in his English visit. Mr. Furkert, Engineer-in-Chief and Under-Secretary of the Public Works Dept., is now interviewing several leading electrical engineering concerns in Great Britain regarding plant for the new hydro-electric power station at Lake Waikaremoana, which wiU cost more than £2,000,000. Another important contract Mr. Furkert hopes to place in England is for the construction of a viaduct-bridge over Mohaka Gorge, near Hawkes Bay, while sea defences at Christchurch will probably also provide work for British contractors. Mr. Furkert will also study concrete roads abroad, and if on his return his report is favourable hundreds of miles of main roads built in this material will be added to the few miles—at present only 60—now existing in N.Z. out of 64,000. All these projects will mean an increased demand for cement, which will also be wanted in large quantities for such undertakings as the new Main Trunk Tunnel between Wellington and Tawa Flat, for the great Arapuni Dam, for buildings, and for many similar porpositions shortly materialising. There is, therefore, a certain and steady market for the output of the new mills to be erected by The British Standard Portland Cement Ltd. This newly formed £350,000 undertaking has acquired a cem-ent-producing area of an exceptional nature, and estimates manufacturing 72,000 tons per annum with the most modern plant in N.Z. The Company’s properties contain, according to experts’ reports, over 15,000,000 tons of cement rock and limestone, and over 1,000,000 tons suitable coal. It is believed that the demand for cement roads alone can absorb the whole of the Company’s output. Investors should now apply for and carefully read the Company’s Prospectus, obtainable from the local brokers W. A. Ott and Co. Ltd., from any member of the Stock Exchange, from The National Bank of New Zealand Limited, or from the Interim Secretary, Box 542, Wellington. —Advt.