A Mountain of Pure Iron.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5210, 18 March 1895, Page 2

A Mountain of Pure Iron.

" Rounding Capo Farewell into Golds© Bo 3*, New Zealand, may ba eee> hieing--abruptly from the sea, and* in proyortiou? fllmoet fabulous, a certainty/ of untold wealth in tho form*- of a mountain having the lustre or appear- • ance of pure iron. This wonderful 1 phenomenon lifts its head to a height of' . 700 feet above the golden eands beneath;. !ißfour miles long, two mileß wide, and ! contains, above ground, fifty million tonb- ; of hematite ore, whioh, on careful analy- | sis, is found to contain 97 per cent; ' of splendid iron— iron containing scarcely ! any traceß of sulphur or phosphorus* j Of this vast deposit, thiß treasure chest of the Southern Hemisphere, there is enough, iron to .serve, no; only the seven colonies* of Australasia, but the whole Northern and Southern Pacific and Indian Ocean portß for the next two centuries to come. Alongside this majestic mountain of hematite lies almost au uuliuiited quantity of criptallino liaiebtsne and coal, and, within a convenient distanc3, manganesu, all thiswn together in sush clobo proximity as if designed by nature to be specially handy for the great and economical production of pig and manufactured iron and steel." These glowing sentences are not from a work of fiction by a master of the imaginative art, but are tho words used by a civil engineer in describing one of the assets cf New Zealand. Tho writer is Mr F. Buxton, 0.E. ; -of "Nelson, and the extract given above is from the preamble to a prospectus which ho has forwarded to England with a view to floating a oom* pany to work this magnificent mineral deposit. We have no desire to detract frqm the mineral resources of the Nelson provincial district, which are admittedly great j but we fear that Mr Buxton will injure his cause by hia over-sanguine expectations and over- coloured descriptions. Apparently a company ie already in existence — oa paper jat any rate — for his preamble to tho prospectus goes on to Bay ,*—" This oompany : having obtained from the Government of New Zealand a concession to develop thin iron mountain and adjoining minerals, will command the trade of the Southern Hemisphere more completely thon do the coal and iron masters command the industries of Great Britain. Our concession incluies 14,000.000 tons of bituminous coal of great calorimetric valuo— coal scarcely second to the best English, say Yon Hoohstetter and the lata Sir John Coode. We Bhall, having our own powerful steameis, mn a fa3t line to the various Australasian, Pacific, Indian and other eastern ports, with a view of ultimately securing tho control of tbo whole iron and coal trade in; thia and that part of the world. * *• * Tho profit-on this company's possessions of J64 1,000,000 sterling, taking it to be worked out in a couple of, centuries, will be .£205,000 per annum ; and tho outlay of £310,0C0 will- be reooverod in the first nineteen months. This forty-one millions* worth of profit giveß to Collingwood a pre-eminehco over any othor place in tho known world. Its manufacturing facilities arc unequalled. It is in the very centre of New Zealand, close to the deep water of a bay in which the whole of her Imperial Majesty's fleet might be moored.'* On reading this one iB sorely tempted to exclaim : " Prodeegious ! " It is truly a colossal echeme, and v;q hope its foundations are secure. Such a towering castle of princely possibilities cannot, turely, be reared on unsubstantial air. But if tho facts aro as alleged there is no need to givo way to " high-falutin " in stating them. No doubt .£310,000 is a large sum to usk English capitalists to invest in our mountain of iron, but surely it is going too far to tempt that capital by a promise of a return at the rate of 66 per cent per annum for two hundred years on the capital invested ! And wo may ask : What. chance has Taranaki ironsand, plus even the enthusiasm of Mr E. M. Smith, against a company that offers English money lords R property worth forty-one millions sterling for a paltry J2300,000 addP