SCARCITY OF IRON.

Taihape Daily Times, 14 September 1918, Page 6

SCARCITY OF IRON.

MONEY IN SCRAP HEAPS. Never in the history of New Zealand has there been such a clearing up of the country’s old iron scrap heaps as has taken place within the last three of four years of war. The piles of rusty horseshoes, formerly to be seen outside many a blacksmith’s shop, have long since disappeared, and fragments of disused machinery, old rails, broken down and obsolete engines and all kinds of odds and ends have been put to useful purpose after years of exposure to wind and weather.

New Zealand foundries are now practically running on scrap iron. This is freely admitted by their managers, to whom the second hand dealer in this commodity has become a person of considerable importance. “We are buying up every bit of old cast iron we can lay our hands on,” said the manager of a well known local foundry last week. “We have always bought up certain quantities of scrap iron, but now we are practically dependent on it. The cast iron scraps are melted down and mixed with pigiron, and in this way we are able to conserve our supplies of the latter. Before the war we paid about £3 a ton for old cast iron, and are now paying £7. The price for new pig iron, which was formerly about £4 a ton, has now advanced to anything from £l4 to £2O. The Home market' is closed, but we are still getting a little from India and Australia, the embargo on -export from the latter country having recently been lifted.” The advance in the price of wrought iron is said to be even greater, supplies of new material being practically unprocurable. Sr.eel plates, for instance, formerly costing £lO per ton, are now difficult to procure at £BS. All kinds of scraps of wrought iron are being bought up for useful purposes, and the second hand dealer who in old times was content to sell at 30s or £2 a ton, was now receiving £4O for the same stuff. Old boiler plates, mining vats, bar and sheet iron, are stated to be in great demand, these being hammered down and worked up again into ship’s plates, boiler plates, iron bars, and also used } for odds and ends in repair work.