COLONIAL STONES. A NEGLECTED ASSET.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2040, 27 March 1907, Page 2

COLONIAL STONES. A NEGLECTED ASSET.

A gentleman well qualified to speak on the business of monumental masons and on the stories that are required in their work, recently passed through Gisborne, and in tlie course, of a short conversation made some interesting remarks regarding- the potentialities -of- Now Zealand so far as' supplying tho stones required was concerned. He commenced by stating that New Zealanders were well aware, that they had in the, country vast supplies of marble, granite and Milestone; but for some reasop or other-nobody bad yet come forward with the capital necessary to open up the quarries. Marbles of all kinds abounded, and in the South an excellent Milestone was procurable. On the Coromandel Peninsula a i.no granite was to be found. This granite lias a special advantage in that it can be more easily cut than any imported granite. Out of this stone the base of the statue to Sir George Grey erected in Auckland lias been made. Our informant, who has had experience in America and- Australia, stated that if the stone in New Zealand existed in either of those countries it would be at once worked. There was not in New Zealand, bo said, one respectable quarry, though an expenditure of only about £2OOO would equip a company with all the necessary machinery. He pointed out that a duty of 30 per cent, on imported stones, which, he thought, should afford a .sufficient protection to the colonial article. He bad been in conversation with a local man in tlie. monumental business, and bad ascertained that it cost more for freight on imported stone limn the. stone itself cost. As far as he knew there, was no good sloue in the Poverty Bay district.