A MINE OF WEALTH UNTOLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1918, Page 5

A MINE OF WEALTH UNTOLD.

fISmSBERGWS ETCH DEPOSITS^ Some time ago it was announced that the British. flog had been hoisted b, EbeJtaf t Harbor, in. Spitsbergen, M>? that'the German houses there and thj German wireless station' had 'been dg? stro'yed, Spitsbergen, a group oj islands in the Arctic Ocean, lie Vff tween I'ranz-Josef Land and Qrea land. The islands are not permanent! inhabited, but hunters for fans, toeaq reindeer, seals, and walruses pay lar -visits. Coal and marble are the minerals known to be on th»»i& lands, which, however, -were not claim* ed by any nation previous to the Qtx.< man claim a year or two ago. *.■_ The Daily Express recently pnolUA* ed an interview witJi Mr SflJJsbuirjpj. Jones, leader of the British SpitzMjj gen Expedition, on Ma teiurn to Lititt don. 'S> "Happily," he said, "Spiteberg* -will never foe. another Helgoland to th country. On the contrary, it ■will,l Britain's Arctic Gibraltar, the norths! entrance to our islands, for it pomettfl, "the most magnificent deep-water (bora I have ever seen in my world p» vels. Our vessel carried large Ointfi bera of miners, enormous quantities o mining materia], and three and a lull years' food supply. When I tell y«! that Swedish experts estimato thai there are twenty-two milliards of toaj( of iron in Spitzbergen, you 'ay walis» how all-important it is. Tn*r». «J» from thirty to fifty miles of mouatahJ containing the richest iron in the worli As for coal, vast seams of it are visiM on the .hillsides. Both the mi aax the iron are easily and cheaply minei by quarrying and tunnelling, not bj costly pits es in England. When W have clinched our hold on Spltab*rge( we shall be able to meet not only B* tain's coal and iron requirements, t>U also those 'of the great ScandjnaTifti and North-West Russia markets. Cojj is now £lO 10s a ton in Norwayl.Cijj you wonder, therefore, that tb» Nffl wegians and Swedes have been despelj ately anxious to exploit Spitsbergen! We found some 800 Norwegians an Swedes there, and last year they ,h| 120,000 tons of shipping at work < Spitzbergen coal and iron for Scanfl navia. All the same, those <Mutr* are now confining thsir activities toi comparatively little space in the JaW British interests, thanks to our Navj have gained the upper hand. Gera«Hs are i »on-«sistent." " .'.