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5. Being sand, it can be moved by machinery as easily as grain, no unusual labour being required from the time it enters the barge until it comes under the hands of the puddler in the furnace. 6. There is less labour to the puddler in making iron from sand than from pig. 7. The quality of the iron produced is equal to Swedish. 8. It is the only process by which wrought iron can be made from the ore direct for commercial purposes. 9. The process of bringing the iron to nature is so simple that it is almost certain that mechanical puddlers can be used—for instance, " Danks." 10. Auckland is the best centre for distributing our manufactures, it being less costly to deliver iron to the larger New Zealand ports, and to Melbourne, Sydney, and Hobart, than to bring the same from South Staffordshire to London. 11. English ironmasters have been inquiring into this ; and one of the largest Middlosborough steel-manufacturers, Mr. S. Gilchrist Thomas, after seeing the works at Onehunga, has opened negotiations for the purchase of all our products in the shape of blooms or billets; but this will largely depend upon the class of freight offering for London. At present very low freight can be obtained by shipping same as ballast. Steel will eventually be made ; but it is not proposed to enter upon that at once. Any further information I shall be most happy to give. I have, &c, Hon. Sir Julius Vogel, K.C.M.G. John Chambees.

Enclosure No. 2. Mr. John Chambebs to the Hon. Sir Julius Vogel, K.C.M.G. Sie, — Auckland, 18th February, 1885. Yesterday you asked some questions re the New Zealand Iron and Steel Company (Limited,) that I should have answered more fully had time allowed. You expressed surprise at the selection of the site. The main reason for it was : the railway is our eastern boundary, while the harbour is the western. The railway connects us with the Auckland wharves, and will bring us our coal; while the Manakau Harbour will enable us to land all ironsand, &c, in the middle of the works with the least expense, as we have not to go out of the harbour for anything required in the works, the material being put into barges in smooth water; the supply at the Heads being almost inexhaustible. Another reason was to have a better supply of labour than could be obtained on the West Coast. We should never have started works if we had not seen our way to make wrought iron direct from the ore or sand. The saving of both labour and material quite equals the higher price of both in the colony. Our process is an extremely simple one as far as making the sand into iron ; after that the manipulation is the same as in the Old Country. At the same time we have imported the very best and latest machinery. We shall use Wilson's gas producers. Without these we should not have been able to use our light brown coals, while with these we can use almost anything. We shall not only use sand to make our best iron, but shall work up all the old iron we can get. This alone is a great saving to the country. At the first we shall confine ourselves to iron, feeling sure that as soon as the works are going well the company will go into steel, as that can be made at Onehunga as easily as iron. There are many other industries that must spring out of this if the tariff is raised: for instance, there is a man prepared to start making nails as soon as we can supply him with wire. He was a nailmaker at Manchester. One of the principal arguments against us is that there is no protection on iron and little or none on most of the heavy lines. I was much pleased to find that you fully appreciated the importance of successfully establishing such an industry in New Zealand. I shall be always most happy to give the Government or yourself any information that lies in my power. I have, &c, Hon. Sir Julius Vogel, K.C.M.G., Colonial Treasurer. John Chambees.

Enclosure No. 3. Pbospbctus. The New Zealand Iron Company (Limited) is organized to manufacture bar and pig iron and wire from the ironsand deposits of the West Coast, by means of the patents owned by Messrs. John Chambers and G. H. Gardner. ' The practicability of these patents having been fully proved by the works at present in operation at Onehunga, there remain but two points to be considered—viz., the cost of manufacturing and the market for the product. The Cost. —ln estimating the comparative cost of manufacturing iron here and in England there are three items to be considered —viz., labour, coal, and raw material. The raw material is almost a nominal cost to us. The coal will cost no more here than in England, for it is intended to use only gas for all heating purposes in the works, which can be produced by means of gas-generators from slack or any brown coal at a far lower cost than the same amount of heat can be obtained from burning coal. Labour is, then, the only item which will cost more here than in England, and we have to consider what advantages we possess to counterbalance this greater cost. These advantages consist (1) in situation, by which we save 10 per cent, on the Home cost, which is absorbed in commission, insurance, exchange and interest, and outward freight, as the freight from Auckland or Onehunga to different places within the colony will be no more than the charges in England in bringing the iron from the mills by rail and cartage and shipping charges in London; (2) in our process, by which we save cost of fettling (or wrought-iron scrap), which, in puddling from pig, has to be put into the furnace, and the cost of making the pig and the waste of the same in puddling. This