THE IRONSAND INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 130, 19 October 1912, Page 6

THE IRONSAND INDUSTRY.

£650,000 GOING BEGGING. There is a danger that Parliament, in is anxiety to adjourn before the running of the New Zealand Cup may leav« jndone many things which are of the first importance to the Dominion (says the New Zealand Times). There is one question which has not even been mentioned in the House this session, but which is of the greatest importance to the whole community. We refer to the proposals of the Ethelburga syndicate. This syndicate is prepared to invest £050,000 in this country within five years in the establishment of iron and steel works if the Government will subsidise it at the rate of £32,500 a year. This subsidy will only be payable after the expenditure of £050,000, and only then if 65,000 tons of iron and steel are produced in the meantime. The State is to be entitled to obtain all the iron and steel it requires at cost price, plus 5 per cent., which means that it will save an enormous sum every year in freights alone. Over and above all, it is stipulated that the works established shall become the absolute property of the

State in forty years without further pay- I ment or compensation. The proposal, on i the face of it, seems almost too good Ito be true, and yet Parliament is I not being asked to even consider it, It I means the employment of skilled and un- | skilled labor, the establishment of all I kinds of subsidiary industries, a large i increase in the output of coal, cheap iron \ and steel for our foundries, and the efnIployment of our young chemists and metallurgists who are at present driven abroad. It means, in short, a splendid

impetus to national development. The danger—and a very serious danger—js that the Ethelburga people may grow weary at our procrastination and disinclination to talk business, and withdraw their offer altogether. If this takes place it may be many a long year before such an opportunity occurs again. It is, of course, very important that legislators should witness the running of the Cup; but it is essential'also that they should devote themselves to largo ! questions of public policy. When one

thinks of the expensive hours of, the present session which have been wasted in furious fanfaronades between the Ins and the Outs, and the wrong which is involved in the proposed hasty abandonment of the real business of the country, we cease to wonder that a large section of the public is beginning to regard our I politics and politicians with, indifference and contempt. When Masseyism took the ascendant we were "promised a" new heaven and a new earth. Instead of

which we have a few wheezy, derelicts who cannot accomplish anything because they haven't begun to catch up. If the. House adjourns without closing on some' terms with the alert-Home syndicate which wants to .provide Wib'capital'to establish the iron and steel industry in New Zealand, we may well conclude, that! they never will catch.up;..that in : reality they have not got the brains fpr the job.