NEW ZEALAND MARBLE..

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2090, 4 November 1880, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND MARBLE..

An interesting prospectus has been issued by the Caswell Sound Marble, Portland Cement, and Mining Company, with reference to the object the Company has in view. That object is to work extensive beds of marble discovered in Caswell Sound on the west coast of this island. The marble has been analysed by Mr. Cox, of the Colonial Museum, and reported on by Dr. Hector. The latter says : —“ To the upper and lower Silurian beds should probably be referred the beautiful white statuary marble and the dove-colored fortification marble of Caswell Sound, on the west coast of Otago, which are now being placed in the market by a company which is being formed to work the quarries. The samples received in the Museum indicate them to be of a very superior quality for ornamental and building purposes.” In the report of the Royal Commission for inquiring into the industries and resources of the country the following is given as the evidence of a West Coast Committee which was entrusted with preparing information for the Commission : “ The marble quarries of Caswell Sound are of great extent, and the quality of the stone is equal to any in the world, not excepting Carrara marble, as is proved by the fact that the Caswell Sound marble, competing against Italy and other famed marble-producing countries, took the first prize at the Sydney Exhibition. In order to enable these quarries to be worked, opened out and made available for commercial purposes, a largo preliminary outlay is necessarily required, and we would strongly recommend that assistance should bo given, either by way of pound for pound expended, or by a liberal bonus on the production of, say, the first 500 tons of stone from the quarries. We may remark that competent experts in London and other parts of the world have examined and tested this stone, and pronounced it to be of the very highest possible class, and this fact warrants us in urging that large assistance be given in making the product available, and so adding a large source of wealth to New Zealand.” All this is very favorable, and if the undertaking is only properly managed, and subsequent investigations prove the correctness of the prospectors’ forecasts, a very valuable industry would bo founded. In those days when the development of the resources of the colony is of vital importance, any such attempt at opening out the mineral riches of Now Zealand should have the good wishes of the public.