NEW ZEALAND PIG-IRON.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 November 1915, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND PIG-IRON.

A PROMISING INDUSTRY. (From the Christchurch Sun.) More than 50 years ago a quantity of sand taken from Taranaki was carried to Sheffield, the great cutlery manufacturing centre of England, and there submitted to a process than transmuted it first into prosaic pig-iron and then into beautiful steel table cutlery. In the half century that has elapsed the hopes of what might be done with the Taranaki iron sands have often been expressed in glowing terms by the enthusiasts who foresaw the rising of a great iron and steel industry in New Zealand. Chief among them was the late Mr. E. M. Smith, M.P., who, in season and 6ut of season, proclaimed his faith in the possibilities of the sand that had won his affection. But the path of the enthusiasts was strewn with obstacles. Opinion was divided, too, on the question of whether the embryo industry should be worked by the Government, or whether a private company should be subsidised. Various negotiations were entered into by private traders with the State, but they proved abortive and nothing was done. New enthusiasts arose, and within the past year works have been established at New Plymouth in which a new and improved process of extracting iron from the sand is being used. Pig-iron is being produced, and it was demonstrated to a Sun representative on Friday to be of a thoroughlysatisfactory character. The demonstration was made at Messrs Laurenson and Le Cren's Crown Iron Works. The bars of pig-iron were reduced to liquid form, and the molten metal was poured into the moulds. Coming from the furnace the flaming liquid pours down a trough and runs into smaller vessels, to which a long iron handle ''is attached, and from this it is poured into the moulds. Some very fine eastings have been produced, quite equal to anything produced from the imported article. They included: Fire-bars, hydraulic ram appliances, air bricks, and most difficult of fill malt kiln plates. Over 15,000 tons' of pig-iron, at a Home cost of 82s per ton, are being imported into this country every year, and Mr. Laurenson states that when sufficient works have been established there is no reason why the whole of this should not be produced in New Zealand. The chemical analysis has proved satisfactory, and a method of eliminating the "titanium" from the sand has been discovered. It is intended to erect at New Plymouth a plant at a cost of £25,000 that will turn out 25 tons of iron and five tons of steel every day. The output at present is about four tons per day. Mr. Laurenson is convinced that there is a great future in store for the iron and steel industry in New Zealand.