NEW ZEALAND'S MINERAL RESOURCES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 212, 13 September 1901, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND'S MINERAL RESOURCES.

SCHEMES OF DEVELOPMENT. IRONSAND PROJHOTS. THE HON. A. J. CADMAN SANGUINE. The Auckland Herald correspondent writes under date London, August lOrh —On Thursday, I met the Hon. A. J. Oadman, who, though ordered to rest by bis medical advisers, both in the colony and here, has felt so well that, he has not-taken a day's -rest since he l set foot in London. Asked as to th° experiments no-v being carried on in Sheffield, to test, or rather to prove the suitableness of New Zealand ironfiand for conversion into every product having iron for its b*se, from pig iron to surgical instruments, Mr. Cadman said that so far as his latest information went, the experiments were proceeding satisfactorily. Ho estimated that the plint, etc., requirod for New Zealand would mean nothing less than a capital of £250,000. You see, he said,' in this country or»e firm makes pig iron, another the bar, another the steel, and so on. In New Zealand we shall have to do it all ourselves, so that it will mean that we shall have to put down about 14 different plants. It is a far bigger job than I anticipated when I started.' 1 And you think that the industry will pay in New Zealand V ' I do so,' was the reply,' and pay well. All that I have seen in England convinces me more and more of this.' " Recalling an interview I had had with Mr. Cookson on iron manufacture, which I sent you a few weeks ago, I asked Mr. Cadman for his reasons for being so sangaine. He readily replied: 'Among other , plac s L have visit™},' he said,' is Middlesborough. I went carefully into the figures there and elsewhere,and lamoonvinoed that in New Zealand the profits will be enormous. I found it Co3(s 15b 6d per ton to get Spanish ore to Middlesborough, and i Ken it <ak»s two tons ®f tfcak ore to raake o< e ton of pig. Now, in Nuw Zealand, 1 tou 12 cut. of ironsand will make one ton of ore, and with the works erected near the supply, the cost of transit to the furnaces will be practically nil. So you can see the difference there. It won't cost us 6d per ton to put the sind into the furnaces. But, as I have said, we shall have Several difterent plants—for wire-mak-ing, naibmaking, railway work, and branches of that description.' ' But will not the high price of labour in .the ■ c >}ony and the short hpurs add fr> your costs immensely V I asked.

'No,' was the reply,' Of course we shall have to import all our labour, that , is, our expert labour, for we cannot get that in the colony. That labour will be under agreement for lengthy terms, 60 that we shall know where we are before we ttart. We shall, of course, emp'oy the Unskilled labour of' the colony, 'but that will not make much difference. We shall further have tho advantage over older countries in that our plants will lie new and of the latent type. Now, here, the plants are morn Or less old, and therefore more, costly. And in addition there is always thn extra expense of keeping them as much as possible up-to-date.' 'Yes,l Slid Mr, Oadman, in conclusion, ' I am now quite satisfied of success, far more than when I first came here. : The only thing is to get tho capital together—one person cannot find the lump- and everybody seems to be going away for his holidaya now.'"