TIN-PRODUCING COUNTRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 71, 10 August 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

TIN-PRODUCING COUNTRY

PARAPARA'S WEALTH. A "mountain of iron.'' by eomiiion repute—and certainly millions of tons has been waiting long centuries at I'arapara for the miner. Estimates of the quantity of ore available in the largest and most northerly deposit, the Washbourn block, in the valley of the Washbourn Creek, go from 20 million tons onwards. In his report four years ago Dr. Bell remarked: "In the examination of an iron ore body nothing is more difficult than the estimation of the quantity of ore available. In the case, of the Parapara iron ore the surface boundaries, which are evidently most irregular, may be taken as an indication of equally great complication in the boundaries beneath the surface. However, since any calculation may be better than none, the following may bo, given based purely on available facts. It is not probable that there will be found to be of less quantity than that given, and it may be very much

greater. . . . Total, 22,691,762 tons." The director of the survey made this comment: "The Parapara iron ore deposits are at once of vast economic value and of great scientific interest." Many years ago the outcrops of ore arrested the eye of man, and various attemptswere made to raise capital to exploit the field, especially by the late Sir Alfred Cadman, who held the well-known Parapara lease. At last an English syndicate is definitely before the public, with an assurance that £650,000 of British capital will be invested if the Government grants a subsidy of £32,500 a year. This is the Ethelburga syndicate, represented by Mr. J. H. Witheford, who was j engaged in London for several years in an effort to persuade capitalists to favorably regard Parapara. No doubt Dr. Bell's report has been a valuable aid in the campaign, and as the late Director of the Geological Survey has now his headquarters in London, he has probably been consulted personally. The syndicate asks for 5 per cent, a year on the capital (£650,000) to be invested at Parapara, and undertakes to supply the State with iron and steel at "cost price, plus five per cent." Presumably this "plus five pe,r cent." does not make allowance for the five per cent, subsidy. At the end of 40 years the company proposed to hand over to the State the whole of the i plant and machinery free of charges, or J '•'under certain equitable conditions, at I the end of 20 years." At the end of j forty years the State would have paid j £1.300,000 in subsidies, and £650,000 j at the end of twenty years. It is pos- j sible also that Parapara may be worked I out in twenty years, because the com-1 pahy hopes to find foreign markets. The j company promises to use State coal and [ coke "if price and quality be satisfac- j tory," and the same "tag" should be at- J tached to the State's deals in iron. We j cannot imagine that the company can J economically use coal from the present remote State mines, but that is a detail { to be considered later, when the syndicate's representatives gives more information. The public will naturally want all the cards to be placed on the table. Tn the meantime the Government has to, step very cautiously.—Post. jj