PHOSPHATE ISLAND

Cue (NZERS), Issue 34, 31 October 1945, Page 31

PHOSPHATE ISLAND

THE ■ news that Australian troops had re-occupied Nauru, the tiny phosphate island near the equator which had been in Japanese hands since August, 1942, must have made welcome reading to the New Zealand farmer. From Nauru, before the Japanese descent, came most of the fertilisers with which the Dominion’s grasslands were top-dressed, and the cutting-off of supplies in 191/2 created a problem which, from the point of view of the farming community, quickly assumed grave proportions.

There is as yet little to indicate how long it will be before it will be possible to resume deliveries. The first consideration, of course, is the condition of the plant installed on the island for the extraction of phosphates, including the elaborate cantilever system for the loading of ships. The plant was heavily damaged when the island was shelled in 1941 by a German raider flying Japanese colours. Until experts have examined the undertaking and submitted their reports it will not be possible to gauge the position.

Mainly as the result of the cessation of supplies of rock phosphate from Nauru and Ocean Islands consequent upon the entry of Japan into the war, the area top-dressed in New Zealand in 1942-43 dropped by 1,179,262 acres, or 31 per cent., from the figure for 1940-41. in the three years ended

June 30, 1940, the quantity of phosphate shipped to New Zealand from the two islands totalled approximately 97,000 tons, but so serious was the position caused by the severance of the supply that it was found necessary to resort to a system of rationing of fertilisers.

The mining rights on Nauru, which is a little island three and a-half miles long and two and a-half miles wide, are vested in .the British .Phosphates Commission—subject to the rights of the native landowners —and the deposits, as well as those on Ocean Island, about 165 miles to the east of Nauru, were worked by the commission. Nauru is completely surrounded by a coral reef and lies in the latitude of the easterly trade wind's, which blow for nine or ten months each year—-a significant fact since it explains the comparative absence of rainfall, a condition necessary for the existence of phosphate deposits. The deposits do not. appear to be simple guano, and some authorities consider them to be of a marine sedimentary origin, having been raised from the sea-bed and subjected to weathering. . '

Nauru was discovered by an American whaling ship in 1798, and was annexed by Germany in 1888, but its rich secret was not rewealed until the chance examination of a geological specimen by an official of the Pacific

Islands Company (later the Pacific Phosphate Company) in Sydney in 1899 revealed the presence of phosphatic rock on the island. As the result of negotiations with German interests, the company, with a mixed staff of British and Germans, began working the Nauru deposits in June, 1906, and in 1907 11,630 tons of phosphate were quarried. During the period from 1909 to 1913 the output was 630,656 tons.

On iSeptember 9, 1914, H.M.A.S. Melbourne steamed to Nauru and effected the surrender of the island, which was shortly afterwards garrisoned by Australian troops. Since the Peace Treaty with Germany the island has been controlled under a joint mandate by the British, Australian and New Zealand Governments, which purchased from the Pacific Phosphate Company, for ! L 3,500,000. both the concession for working the Nauru (deposits and the company’s interests in Ocean Island. The British Phosphate Commission was brought into being and took over from the company on June 30, 1920. The capital for the undertaking was provided by Britain (42 per cent.), Australia (42 per cent.), and New Zealand (16 per cent.), and the annual output was allocated on a corresponding basis. ' The partner countries receive interest at 6 per cent, on their capital invested, and redemption of capital within fifty years is provided for by a sinking fund. The indebtedness of the New Zealand Government on account of Nauru and Ocean Islands, originally L 600,000, had been reduced to- L 249,705 at March 31, 1941.

■ All stages of production- on both Nauru and Ocean Islands have been completely mechanised, enabling the phosphate to be handled with the maximum speed and minimum cost. Electric belt-conveyors, railways and cableways facilitate (quarrying, loading, crushing and drying precesses, and to meet the local conditions at Nauru

a unique method of loading the phosphate ships was evolved. Nauru, as has been pointed out, is enclosed by a reef, and beyond the reef the sea-bed slopes sharply downward at an angle of forty dive degrees, so that the construction of either a harbour or a dock was found impracticable. It was therefore decided to build a cantilever, and this was done in 1930. On the outer edge of the coral reef massive pillars were constructed to which were fixed two large swinging cantilever arms, each with a length of 172 ft. These arms were able to reach out to ships moored beyond the reef, and with electric belt—conveyors running out on both arms the plant was able to load both the fore and after holds of a vessei simultaneously at the rate of a thousand toms per hour. The great depth of the sea-bed and the proximity of the reef meant that the mooring system for vessels using the cantilever had to be both elaborate and costly, and even then could only be used in fine weather, necessitating resort to the use of lightering in uncertain weather conditions.

Nauru had the distinction of being the only place to be attacked by both Germans and Japanese during the recent war. In December, 1940, the Nazi raiders Nanyo Maru and Narvik, which had been preying on shipping, made two visits to the island, both of which paid them rich dividends. Loading of phosphate had been held up by rough seas, which prevented

ships getting alongside the cantilever, and no fewer than seven freighters were waiting off the island.

The two enemy raiders got among the freighters and in three days sank five ships totalling more than twentyfive thousand tons. Why so much tonnage was allowed to concentrate without protection at a time when German raiders were known to be in the vicinity has never been explained. But more was to follow. The raiders went on to Emirau Island, where they landed survivors from these ships and from others sunk around the coast of New Zealand. The Nanyo Maru then returned to .Nauru to shell the cantilever equipment, but fortunately did not shell the residential area, and no lives were lost. Two days after the attack on .Pearl Harbour a year later, Nauru received the first of many bombings, and shortly afterwards most of the European residents were evacuated.

Nauru has a population of about 2,700, consisting of 1,900 native inhabitants, about 600 Chinese who had been introduced for the working of the phosphate deposits, and a .handful of natives of other Pacific islands. In times of peace the administrative control of the island is in the hands of an Administrator.

With the end of the war early steps will no doubt be taken .to restore Nauru’s phosphate undertakings. Owing to the uneven nature of the outcrops of coralliferous limestone it has never been possible to measure accurately the extent of the deposits, but it is estimated that there are between fifty and ninety million tons of phosphate rock available. How soon these resources' can again be tapped remains to be seen, but it is a matter of the utmost importance to the New Zealand farmer and, indirectly, to the people of the Dominion as a whole.