TARANAKI.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 714, 2 September 1869, Page 3

TARANAKI.

THE PIONEER STEEL WOKKS.-SUCCESS OF THE FIRST SMELTING. We take the following from the Herald of the 21st August.

We •with pleasuro announce that the first smelling at the Pioneer Steel Works, hafl proved a success. It is true that a number of unforseen difficulties have arisen to impede the operations; yet notwithstanding, the steel has been produced, anrl if a doubt has hitherto existed in anyone's mind as to the result, it must by this time have been removed. As an experiment, this smelting has far exceeded the expectationsof the most sanguine. During the past fuur days, the works have been thronged with people inspecting for them selves the steel, and a large quantity must have been carried away in small pieces by persons wishing to possess a piece of the first steel smelted in Taranaki. The ex citement has been such, that Messrs Ilenochsberk & Co. have intimated to us that as the inhabitants of this town wish to have a local interest in the undertaking, they are willing to form a company, allowing about £5,000 worth of shares to be open for sale in this Province, that the public may not complain of their wishing ro monopolise the whole of the proti's of the concern to themselves. As an idea of what the returns will be, we may state that at the lowest computation the furnace now erected will smelt 2L tons of steel per week. Supposing the steel to be worth say £25 per ton (which is merely a third of the value according to the statement published in our last issue of similar steel from sand at the Island of Bourbon), they would, with only one furnace, be able to manufacture £525 worth of a marketable article per week. We will now go into the expenses of this production. According to the returns of the first experiment, it icalculated that it will not co«t over £6 pe: ton to make the ore and run it into steel; therefore the outlay would be about £i2G leaving a profit of nearly £IOO per week Messrs. Henochsberg and Co. have shown a great amount of faith in their undertaking, by spending such a 1 a-ge sura of money in an experiment vsliich, we are happy to say, has turned out so successfully. Besides this, they have exhibiied a hbjral principle in employing no other 'abor but what was available in \h; place. The settlers of tin's Province will now hav< an opportunity'of obtaining an interest in a concern which, according to all appear ances, is likely to prove a profitable speculation.