NEW ZEALAND IRON.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 228, 22 September 1873, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND IRON.

The Melbourne Herald of a late dafe says :— The steamer Alhambra on her last trip from New Zealand, brought; up from Nelson a small shipment. which may possibly have the effect of creating a new in* duswy here, and at the same fime of making the -whole of the Australasian group independent of the mother country in an important staple commodity — we allude to iron ore. A parcel of about six tons of this ors arrived by the above steamer, which was at once honded over to Messrs. Drysdah and Fraser, Kingsfreet, for the purpose of smelting. The owner of the mine, being anxious that {he ore should be thoroughly tested, engaged the services of Mr Patterson, assayer of tbe Bank of New Zealand, and the" work was carried out by the above firm under the inspection of the latter gentleman, ihe result being in the highest degree satisfactory. At the return of the Alhambra, several "pigs'" of iron were despatched, and their arrival in Nelson will doubtless convince the sceptical of this very pretty but not go ahead Province. To Messrs. Anderson and Bothwick (both Melbourne men) belongs the credit of having discovered the ore, and these gentlemen state that the mine can be worked at a comparatively trifliug cost. To use their own expression, " There are two huge mountains of the ore ready to hand on the surface awl only waiting to be smelted." The prospectors have leased about two square miles of ground from the Crown, the whole of which, according to their account, is incredibly rich in minerals, and lho lease includes the property lately known as the Collingwood coal-mine. Messrs. Anderson and Borthwick, finding that it would he a matter of impossibility for any private firm to effectually work a mine of such magnitude, have determined to form a company. It is, we understand, their intention to endeavor to launch the affair in Ihe Colonies, failing which the aid of English capitalists will be sought. Tbe Age of a still later date says:— "The first bar of iron made from New Zealand ore was turned out yesterday at ihn Melbourne Roiling .Mills, Dudley street, We3t Melbourne, at the request of Mr Alexander Borthwick. home of the surface ore was put into the furnace and it produced, when rolled, even in its first stage, a really first-class malleable iron, which could be bent and twisted into any shape. Some coid bars of iron weie then put to the severest test, and were bent double under the largest hammer in the establishment without showing any ei^n of weakness. The iron produced from this New Zealand ore when cut bus a bright clean surface which resembles polished steel. The proprietors of the Rolling Mills, who bßve been accustomed to the manufacture of iron, state that the iron produced from the ore is the best they have worked in the colony, and thut considering the hurried una necessarily imperfect way in which it was tested, no imported iron would stand the same treatment with such a satisfactory result. The iron, it is alleged, can ba put on to the market at fifty per cent lower than the most inferior description of iron imported from England.