The Daily News WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29. MOUNT EGMONT METAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 201, 29 September 1909, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29. MOUNT EGMONT METAL.

It is a long time since the public of , Taranaki have met so courageously tw':I spoken and practical a Minister of the I Crown as the lion. Roderick McKcnzic, -Minister for Public Works, and the wholesome change should be, if it not, appreciated even by those whose requests have been courteously but emphatically refused. Mr. Mc-.Ke.nzie is a ■shrewd calculating ficot, whj>se promises, when made, may be relied upo-i. The promptness with which, for instance, he expressed hie "disgust"' with 1 the finicking quarry operations on the specially constructed Mt. Egmont railway line, on the occasion of his first visit to the works last week, is n further proof that the present Cabin't ia sincere in its endeavors to place

every Department of the State on a Round business footing. The Jit. Eg- < mont railway and crushing plant, constructed 011 tile earnest solicitation of the metal-starved local bodies of the province at a cost of something like £50,000, has so far failed to answer expectations, but tlie raison has nil along been perfectly obvious. When tin railway line reached a point six miles from the U'aipufcu junction, and an nltitude of over *JOOO feet, progress was stopped, and an up-to-date and costly crushing plant wae erected on a convenient and adjacent site. But the only in i-1 a I available at that point consisi'l'! of the boulder deposits in the bed of the Mii'igiinui stream, which have been wnrli-d fairly continuously by the Railway Department since the completion of (In; works. While this boulder metal is inferior in many respeds to the quality of stone understood to lie awaiting development on the mounta.si slopes, and also more costly of production on account of Die greatly increased handling necessary, no fault cau 1)2 found with the policy adopted at ill'' time. The exploitation of the riv T-hed boulder deposits made it po-sible to produce crushed metal much sooner than was possible from the rpiarries, out it was never anticipated that the work of pushing on the development of the quarries proper was to lie abaudme-.t, even fo r tile time being._ Under the original scheme for which authority was given fiy Parliament, the railway was to li.ive been carried to a pont nine miles from Waipuku, where the prospective quarries were located. Since that time, however, a more economically worked supply was located at a greater altiftide—some .10(10 feet above sea-le\e| —which would probably necessitate the erection of an aerial tramway to convey the stone from the quarries to a convenient point on the railway line, or direct |o the crusher plant. ' Such an undertaking, (hough necessitating the inslal'ation of powerful motive power, would probably be much less costly than the construct inn of" a similar length of railway line, An cxte:isi\e plant such ns would lie required should shortly be available on the West Coast of the Kouili Island, where the fllackball Company's aerial tramway. has been superseded by the iv.v blackball railway line. Probably the heavy vo |,- f f,„- U lO Main Trunk line during (hi l pari! three vear-; wais a factor in curtailing expenditure on the Mt. Kgmont line, but the f,.,.| remains thai 1 lie nriiMnnl. and only l,ii-iiieV<-like Mdiome. has never been carried out. Had Hie railway or aerial tramway been carried on from the present tc ; - ininiis to Ihe mountain, the quarries would to-day have been producing the (heap metal for which local bodies throughout tile province are .sorely u need, and the Minister. far from expressing his disgust with the present .operations, would have been able lo claiin credit for his colleague in charge of the Railway Department. At same time there is nothing to warrant tf)r somewhat pessimist i<- with' "inch 51 r. McKenzic spoke of futuic operations It would be the acme of lolly to abandon the necessary and costly works already completed The Minister, at one stage of the proee clings however, did indicate that the tw. or hree miles of railway necessary would probably be made if he were assured dial "(he metal existed." We should think it was somewhat late : n the day to fxpiws doubt as to the cytstence of suitable metal at tiie moun<lll were ,t otherwise the construction «• the line woulil stand out as the uggesl railway blunder in the Domin"n- it may be taken for grant.\l therefore, that the engineers lon« ji«o ni ,' s ' themselves (hat the qualuv ■'11(1 quantity of stone available at the mountain were Niitlicicnt to justify the authorisation of the underlakiii". Thee is therefore some reason to hope that, lo a praet'ca! man of affairs like the 1 on. Mr. MeKcn/.ie in charge of tie Department of Public Works, steps „i'l nllw- v J ™ tu ff ,t , lhe lU ' umuj oil a payable footing.