IRONSAND INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 March 1916, Page 8

IRONSAND INDUSTRY.

' • THE TARANAKI SCHEME. EARLY OPERATIONS LIKELY. Negotiations are now taking place in Xew Plymouth with a view to making definite arrangements for the establishment of the ironsand industry in Taranaki, and information as to when and where the manufacturing -works will be set up may be expected in the course or" a few days. The scheme aims at cmploying the Hesketh system for manufacturing pig-iron, and a company, known as the New Zealand Iron Smelting and Manufacturing Company, 'has teen formed to carry on operations. One of the directors of the company, Mr. J. B. Laurenson (of Christchurch), is now in Xew Plymouth. In the course of an interview with a Daily News representative last night Mr. Laurenson said the question of manufacturing pigiron from Taranaki ironsand had been a question under consideration for the past sixty years, but it was no longer a question, for it had been proved that pig-iron of a splendid quality could be made hero. Tests had recently been made in different parts of New Zealand with the Taranaki ironsand, and the results were most gratifying. "So satisfactory have the tests been," added Mr. Laurenson, "that, given the plant, there is not a shadow of reason why within the next six or eight months New Zealand should not he fulfilling its requirements in pip-iron. New Zealand uses 10,000 to 12,000 tons of pig-iron a year, and the advantage of a local industry must be apparent to anyone, because unless a tremendous upheaval occurs in labor circles a local industry remains practically at a level, whereas imports are at the mercy of 'rings' or upheavals like the war." Mr. Laurenson said that during the past week he had paid £35 per ton for corrugated iron, £23 per ton for barbed wire, £22 per ton for plain wire, £l!> per ton for standards, and £l3 10s for ordinary bar-iron, and he declared that if the iron industry had been established in Taranaki a few years ago this province might have now been manufacturing these lines and putting them on the New Zealaud market at half their present cost. Mr. Laurenson pointed nut that the export of pig-iron from Great Britain is now prohibited, and she was cut off from receiving supplies of iron ores from northern '■France and a great nun, J Spain. "It is," he added, "no to xW Zealand to develop this industry, so that we can assist the Empire, not only now, but when peace is declared. There is a growing feeling that it is absolutely necessary for the Empire to live within its own border?, and trade within the Empire." Mr. Laurenson concluded by stating that all the, material for the company's manufacturing plant can be made in Xew Zealand, and there will therefore be no delay in the scheme through waiting for machinery from Home.