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NEW ZEALAND TITANIC STEEL AND IRON COMPANY.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE INDEPENDENT.

Sib,, — In this morning's issue there appears a letter respecting the above company, signed by a "Would-be Shareholder, "and which, as one of the promoters of the company, I feel bound to notice.

Your correspondent's grievance appears to be this — that in his opinion it would have been far better to have secured the services of a first-class engineer and manager before erecting furnace — the nonadoption of this course deterring, himself and others from applying for shares. In support of his view he gives as an illustration the fact that there are only four charcoal blast furnaces in Great Britain, andanother incourseof erection atßilston, the latter having required twelve months' consideration before the plans were decided on. It is a great pity that your correspondent did not go a little further, and give the true reasons of the delay, viz, the scarcity and expense of charcoal, poorness of iron ore, and question as to whether the pig metal would be worth the extra expense of production. It was the careful consideration of these*points, not the mere size or shape of the furnace, that caused the engineer to hesitate. Your correspondent is evidently unaware of the important fact that there is a very large number of charcoal blast furnaces of considerable size now in active operation in the United States of America, and that the furnace to be erected for the NewZealand Titanic Steel and Irom Company is almost a duplicate of one of these American fnrnaces. Further, he is also apparently unaware that America iaabout the only country where titanic iron sands are smelted in large modern blast furnaces and smelted with great profit ; • and it is therefore to America and not to Great Britain, with its four furnaces, that we have to look for the skilled labor, combined with recent experience. " ' '

The company have already made all the necessary inquiries as to th%probability of securing the services of a firstclass man, and such information is now en route. Had they delayed active operations any longer, the shareholders would hava had good ground for complaint at their money lying idle (a year's delay being bound to take place), because the works could not have been erected in the winter months, and all hope of securing the Government bonuses would then have vanished ; the shareholders may, however, take heart of grace, as the Board of Directors can, at a month's notice, obtain within the colony the services of a body of practical smelters and iron-workefs— men who can be thoroughly relied upon, so far as working operations are concerned, but who are naturally destitute of those higher branches of knowledge, which: can only be obtained by an expensive and special training — and which we, of course, only looked for in the manager. lam afraid your correspondent is one of many, who, while anxious to see new industries opened up in the colony, are content to stand on one side and sneer until . others have done the hard work of introduction, and when they aee^ that success is aigh are anxious to be participators in the profit. So far as this company is concerned, the bulk of the shares have been taken up, and if " A would-be shareholder" means business he had better send in his application at once, or he will be too late. *

It is some gratification to the promotersto know that after two years' hard work in bringing the matter prominently before the public, and despite much discouragement, that the New Zealand .S,teel and Iron Company (Limited), is how an undoubted'fact; that it has already capital sufficient to enable the Board to carry out all their arrangements with perfect confidence, and that within a twelvemonth, the question of the smelting the iron sands of the colony, and the quality of the metal resulting therefrom, will be demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt.—* I am, &c,

T. Kennedy Macdonaxd. Wellington, October 8, 1873.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WI18731009.2.12

Bibliographic details

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3922, 9 October 1873, Page 2

Word Count
667

NEW ZEALAND TITANIC STEEL AND IRON COMPANY. Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3922, 9 October 1873, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND TITANIC STEEL AND IRON COMPANY. Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3922, 9 October 1873, Page 2