PARA PARA IRON COMPANY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 61, 12 March 1874, Page 2

PARA PARA IRON COMPANY.

The following report has been Lauded to us for publication: — To Mr. M. M. Webster, NJson S*m — The following observations on the field of operations of the Para Para Iron and Cobl Company may not be uninteresting to ycu at the present time. Having had occasion to be over in the Takaka and Collingwood district? lately, principally on a geological excursion, I took advantage of a spare day I accidentally had to examine tbe iron field lying to the eastward and southward of Te Para Para Jnlet, on the vhores of Golden Bay, and Lur miles south of Collingwood harbor. I had heard a good deal of the extent of this iron field from various sources, and I had also been shown at various times some very flue samples of brown hematite ore, which had come irom it. Having seen however in other places mines cf a similar kind of ore, I was under the impression that the conditions of the Paia Para iron field were not pecu'iar, and consequently my curiosity had not been particularly awakened about it until I found in ColliDgwood on my arrival there, on the 26th February, a prospectus of the Company which had just been formed in Melbo me specially to work the iron fluid in question. The examination of the Collingwood coalfield being one of my primary objects in vi'iting the district, I first naturally satisfied myself of its character, the result being highly satisfactory, and while doing so saw xufllcient evidence of the plentiful quantity of limestone running through it, a valuable and indispensable element as a flux where the manufacture of iron is concerned. Having seen so much of the coal and limestone of the district, I next availed my?e!f of the services of a friend well acquainted with the Para Para iron field to show me over the latter. Owing to a high spring tide, which prevented an going by the beach, we took on our outward journey from Collingwood the inland track, by which on appro ching the Para Para Inlet, one can look oown <n, and over it. On doing so my guMe a?ked me — Did I observe any particular conformation having a dark brown appearam c and showing a good broad outcrop a'ong the flanks of a ppur running parallel in a north easterly direction with the south-eastern shore of the Inlei? I did so, and he informed me I wou'd find it on clofer examination to be all iron ore. Having a map of the country on a large scale, and also the Comraaj 's prospectus with me, 1 proceeded, with the assistance of my lritnd, to test the position and extent of both the freehold and leasehold ground of the Company. I found the former, the freehold of 105 acres, to contain the ore, exhibited all over it in fact, to which my attenuori had been firtt directed, and which has only to bo quarried out of the face ot the outcrop and shot into barges on the inlet I next directed my attention to the examination of the leasehold ground of 640 acres, a square mile, which J is contiguous to and distant only 10 chains < sou'hwest from the freehold, by which it has easy access as well as in other ways to the inlet for the convenient shipment of its ore. ( n looking over theee two properties I va« muuh struck with the vast extent of hematite/ ore contained in them heaped up as it is in gigantic masses, gradually attaining a height in a mile and a half, to nearly 500 feet above the sea. In the whole course of my experience, and [ have seen some of the largest cjal and iron fields in Britain, I have ntver set n anything so extensive of its kind exposed to view, and with such facilities for profitable working. In addition to the iron, there is a large deposit on the ground of a siliceous sha'e which lsai leen proved t» be well adapted f>r making fire bricks of a strong refractory nature. I subjoin a sketch map of the district showing the position of the Company's iron field, which wi'l serve to illustrate my remarks on the subject I am, &c , Thomas Mackat, C.F. Kelscn, Mirch 9, 1874.