THE NATIVE IRONSAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 61, 30 July 1912, Page 4

THE NATIVE IRONSAND.

To the Editor. Sir,—Permit me to oli'er a few wordson the above named metallic deposits of. the Taranaki shore and with reference to the letter of jour correspondent, Mr. T. P. Smith, in the Mews oi Friday, July, 20, the son of the late member, Mr. E.. M. Smith, of irousund fame. 1 might mention that though the first practically successful smelting bi the ironsaud ia. an ordinary charcoal blast furnace was that of ill - . E. M. Smith at Te Henui in 1875, yet quite a triumphant run was made in 1805 in London by Mr. Charles Marten, of Cannon street, in a diminutive furnace, operated by a "fan" blast. The success culminated in a dinner given, to some principal notabilities of the Home iron industries, and the Tar ami ki steel was spoken of. with unqualified praise, both by well-known iron founders and the chief newspapers in Englaud, the iron giving, ! think, twice the Admiralty test for tensile strength. Mr. Marten declared it his intention to proceed toNew Zealand with two 40 h.p. blast engines to begin experiments on scale; but everything seemed to collapse. The ore might, perhaps, not incorrectly, be defined as concentrated iron precipitateWhen the original "Titanic Iron and' Steel Co." wound up its affairs, with Mr. T. Kennedy Mac Donald as secretary, and' abandoned further smelting work, Mr. E. M. Smith went down to Wellington to try to obtain the use of the furnace at Te Henui, and the company let him have it for a trial and supplied him with £3OO for experiment. Mr. Smith found the works in an entirely disabled condition,, and was put to great trouble and cost to get things in order. After running about a ton and a half; I' think,, of pig iron and other castings, his funds became exhausted, and the company, apparently considering that although the outlay had been great to carry out the work, still the cost Of the produced metal was not perhaps less than C2O or £3O per ton, and seeing, as they thought, little prospect of Mr. Smith thought, little prospect of Mr. Smith reducing that cost substantially in the available time, refused him further support, and operations were thus discontinued. And it might be a little interesting to know where or from what furnaces the subsequent 300' tons of Taranaki iron alleged to have been obtained by Mr. E. M. Smith were smelted. The next to speculate on ironsand here was, I think, a well-known resident, a Mr. "Olafield," who, after long and tedious preliminaries, met,, however, with no success. Mr. Hopkins then came upon the scene, professing 70 years' experience as an iron smelting expert, and with no inconsiderable "flourish of trumpets"' obtained munificent orders for iron beforehand from south of New Zealand firms. Mr. Hopkins nobly volunteered his services and those of his sons gratuitously, until unluckily his efforts proved a lamentable failure, and as a solace he felt it his duty to charge £5 a week for himself during "his term of office and £2 a week for his sons. Mr. Hopkins and Co.. then seem to have disappeared. The unprecedented exertions of the late Sir Alfred Cadman in the ironsand cause might have been no insignificant factor in his obtaining his well-merited title, and however unsatisfactory Mr. Donne's claims to recognition may be, it is a notable fact that long before the Harhoi Board existed the Government here seems to have thrown every obstruction instead of encouragement in the way of English capitalists desirous of exploiting the sand. Messrs. Walduck and Co., of Stockpool and Manchester, England', would willingly and liberally at one. tim# have come forward, but the late Dr. Featherstone imposed, such fines in tlio event of their not having the plant on the spot bv a given time that the firm relinquished the project. Heavy royaltieswere levied for shore rights, as if the whole wore pegged out claims for nil old established goldfield, instead of little else than a speculative venture, and of whatever value it may possess the ironsand still lies on the Taranaki shore unutilised.—l am, etc., C.W.W.