A MOUNTAIN OF IRON

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

A MOUNTAIN OF IRON

FEDERATED MALAY STATES. SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION. After twenty-two years' Government service in the East, Mr. W. Eyre-Kenny, son of Mr. H. Eyre-Kenny, of New Plymouth, is on a visit to Auckland. Mr. Eyre-Kenny is now head of the Mines Department in the Federated Malay States, to which position he was appointed in 1903.

In the course of an interview with a Star representative, Mr. Eyre-Kenny supplied some interesting information fegarding the industries and conditions of that part of the gloibe with which he is now associated.

The Federated Malay States, said Mr. I Eyre-Kenny, supplied' about half the j world's tin output, and there were some ; 200,000 men employed in the mines there, [ 90 per cent, of whom were Chinese. Kuala Lampuv. the capital, where .Mr. Eyre-Kenny has his headquarters, is the centre of the mining and rubber indus- j try. The chief mineral mined in the Federal Malay States is tin ore. It is impossible to say for how many years the tin deposits have been worked, (but it is only within recent years that these States have come into prominence as the la.rgest tin-producing countries in the world. The advent of the Chinese, at < an unknown date, was the event that | marked these States as rich in tin ore { and attracted them in their thousands j under British protection. It is only j within comparatively recent years that j such a machine as a steam pump was in- -i trodueed, water-wheels turning the Chinese chain pumps and buckets lifted laboriously by manual labor, were the only means of keeping the mines dry. The tin-produoing ground may be in some exceptional eases so rich as to be black with grains of tin ore, thus carrying a high percentage of ore. It is the exception to find a Chinese laborer in the mines with a wife, and therefore the housing of the laborers is a simple mattpr. The living-houses are long, barnlike structures divided into compartments, in each of which some 20 or 30 ) lnlborers are 'housed. In Selangor. some i •25 aniles from Kuala Lampur, coal has J been found and is now being exploited { by the Mines Department on behalf of the Government.

As indicating the growth of the Malay Federated States, Mr. Eyre-Kenny said that whereas some two or three years ago the population was 1,000,000, it has now increased, to 2,500,000. The area at present toeing 'worked was 30,000 square, miles, the annual trade was £20.000,000, and the Government revenue £3.000,000 a year. ■Replying to a question as to what prospects a New Zealander would have in the Federated States. Mr. Eyre-Kenny replied that from a laborer's point of view the country was very unsatisfactory, as hvbor was cheap. For the man with small capital, however, the country a Horded excellent opportunities.