NEW-ZEALAND AT THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1788, 6 November 1862, Page 3

NEW- ZEALAND AT THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.

I ■We have received by the present mail a little « pamphlet, which gives a very foil description of I the Australian and New Zealand Courts at the Great Exhibition. Tiie articles originally appeared in the Australian and New Zealand Gazette, but are now re-published in a collected form. As our readers will naturally be glad to learn that our Colony made a very creditable show there, we reprint the notice refeiring to it. The space devoted to the colony has a frontage in the nave by the side of New South Wales, and upon three of the sides are placed the banners of Otago, Wellington, Southland, Hawke's Bay, Auckland, Taranaki, Marlborough, Canterbury, and Nelson. Occupying a conspicuous position in the front of the court is a very interesting collection of small parcels of gold, obtained from the alluvial washings in Otago. They ' are small granulated specimens, but there are also two or three very respectable-looking nuggets, weighing several ounces and clearly indicating the existence of considerable mineral wealth. It is not improbable that at the expiration of another period of ten years we may find that New Zealand may be able to make as gratifying a display of its productions of gold as Victoria makes on the present occasion. Near the gold is a very complete illustration of the products obtained from eliminate of iron, found in considerable quantifies upon the property of the Dun Mountain Mining Company. The specimens include the material as obtained in its crude state, as prepared into chrome yellow, chromate of potash, and many other forms well known in the arts and manufactures. Another I remarkably interesting portion of the Exhibition is the Taranaki iron ; it is a species of metallic sand and has the appearance of fine steel filings. If a magnet be dropped upon it and taken up again, it will be found thickly coated with the iron granules. The place where the sand abounds is along the base of Mount Egmont, an extinct volcano, and extends several miles along the coast, to the depth of many feet, and having a corresponding breadth. It has been carefully analysed in this country by several well-known metallurgists, and has been pronounced to be the purest ore at present known. On analysis it is stated to consist in every hundred parts of — Peroxide of iron 88-45 Oxide of titanium, with silicia 11-43 Loss -12 Taking the sand as it lies on the beach and smelting it, the produce ia said to be 61 per cent, of iron of the finest quality; and again, if the sand be subjected to the cementation process, the result is a tough first-class steel, vvhicli in its properties seems to surpass any other description of that metal at present known. If titanium is mixed with iron the character of steel is materially improved; but titanium being a scarce ore, such a mixture is too expensive for ordinary purposes ; here, however, nature has stepped in and made a free gift of both metals on the largest scale. To form some idea of the fineness of this sand, it will bo enough to say that it passes readily through a gauze sieve of 4,9.30 holes or interstices to the square inch. Adjoining the glass vase in which the sand is shown is a case, of excellent cutlery, manufactured by Messrs. Moseley and Son from the Taranaki steel. The temper of the metal is of first-rate quality, and the articles manufactured iroin it are marked by good taste and are very creditable examples of the best description of London cutlery — a branch of industry which, in the hands of Messrs Moseley and Son, still retains ita high reputation. The woods of the colony are represented in a large inlaid round tahle in which the colours of various descriptions of wood have been very taitefully and artistically arranged by workman in Auckland. Within the court there are also some smaller'specimens, which no less successfully illustrate the taste of the workman and the beautiful colours and the variety of tho native woo Is. A very complete representatation of many descriptions of the timber of the colony is also made by boxes formed of the word, the upper surface being polished and the inside of the box containing specimens of the seed, the foliage, and a drawing of the tree in its full grown state. The collection of planks and sections of native woods is a very complete one, and many of them deserve to be more generally known in this country than they are. M. Lievien, as at the Exhibition of 1851, shows in the furniture court an elaborately carved sideboard of New Zealand woods, in which several descriptions are brought into very pleasing and elegant contrast. Among the woods more particularly deserving of notice are the magnificent cedars, the Maori hardwood, adapted for the bearings of machinery ; the ribbon wood, a species of lime very abundant in the forests of Otago ; the rimu, tlie color and markings of which make it well adapted for many descriptions of furniture ; the matui, very closely resembling, both in hardness and color, Spanish mahogany ; the red pine, suitable for furniture and building purposes ; the white pine and red birch, the totara, a hard dark-colored wood, very similar to rosewood ; and the splendid Kauri pine, which furnish the finest description of masts for shipping. There are some samples of good cotton from Korolonga. iu Auckland , some wool and various samples of the fibres which grow so luxuriantly in that part of the Northern Island. Tha phonnium tenax (New Zealand flax) is a fine strong fibre, and is admirably adapted for many branches of inanufacture and would ba particularly useful for ropes, cordage, and strong canvas. The Government of New Zealand a short time since offered a reward of several thousand pounds to any person, who should produce from this or any other native plant a quantity of fibre, equal to 40 tons, available for manufacturing purposes. It does not appear that up to the present time any application has been made for the reward ; but no person can examine the specimens here shown without coming to the conclusion that chemical or mechanical science must at no distant day be able to obtain large quantities of very useful and valuable fibre from , this plant. In addition to the phonnium tenax, there are a variety of other fibre producing plants, such as the vegetable horse-hair, the cabbage tree, the cordelina, and the more familiar torms of the flax and hemp. Some candles and soap are also sent from Auckland— the latter giving indications of a considerable excess in the use of the alkali. It would also appear from the specimens sent from this part of the colony that there are some rich deposits of copper ores in the neighborhood of Auckland. The drawing of the Tarata boiling springs will be examined with interest as one of the most extraordinary natural phenomena ; and the photographs of members of the Legislative Council, and of various public buildings in the capital of the province will not be without interest to many of the visitors . Wellington is chiefly represented by its speci- . mens of wool. Among other samples! are fifty taken from as many ewes bied at the Otaki Industrial School Farm— an institution for the establishi ment of which no small credit is due to the lead- • ing men iu the province. The samples of wool. , from true and cross breeds from England and with the Merino of the Cape, are very satisfactory. The 1 Leicester^ appear to thrive well, and some wool from a cross of Leicester and Southdown, Leicester and Hampshire Down, half-bred Leicester and 1 Merino ail' l Southdown must satisfy every person ! as to the fitness of this province for pastoral in- [ dustry. Some curious native weapons an i hideous carved gods of the Maories have been forwarded ' from Wellington. Nelson ia also conspicuous for its display of wool ; I soratj samples from the long-woolled Leicesters arc r very excellent both in fibre and colour. In addition to the chrome ore already referred to, there » are sampled of copper, coal, and iron, which api pear to be rich and of good quality. Some cloth | spun and woven in the province, ami much used by the volunteers, is made of native-grown wool; r ita retail price is (is. per yard. For elieapne^ or ■ excellence of quality it would not, perhaps, com- | pete successfully with similar products from Bradford or the West of England, but as a specimen 1 of an infant manufacture it is deserving of notice and commendation.

The province of Canterbury is represented_exclusively by a collection of samples of wool from lambs, hoggets, ewes, and wethers. Pastoral industry is that which is particularly adapted to this portion of New Zealand, and the quantity pro- , duced affords sufficient evidence that the colonists are fully alive to its impoitance.