The Daily News. THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1914. OUR POTENTIALITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 222, 19 March 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1914. OUR POTENTIALITIES.

New Plymouth is a place of potentialities. For years it has been living in i4ope, of the early realisation of these same potentialities. . The hope has certainly been long deferred, but that the heart is not sick is shown by the cheerful optimism that characterises the. average property-holder of the town. His ardor has been frequently dampened,' his confidence and hopefulness have been at times sorely tried by untoward set-backs, but, like' Mark Tapley, he soon recovers from his disappointments and- goes on hoping and believing that the town must soon come into its own and become the fifth city of the Dominion. Though the outsider may scoff and smile, and the pessimist in our midst shake his head and predict blue ruin, the optimist • lias justification for his, faith in the prospects of New Plymouth. The town lias many strings to its bow. It has two things which alone will make it much larger and more prosperous. They are the harbpr and the east railway. The former, we are now authoritatively'told, will be ready for the biggest liners trading to the Dominion in eighteen months' time, and the estimate, as we showed yesterday, is on the conservative side. The Stratford railway, when pushed a few miles further, will tap the rich and -extensive Ohura district, the iti'ade of which must find its outlet at the jjearest port, which is Moturoa. The work of construction at this end is certainly not proceeding as satisfactorily as it should. At the present rate of progress, it will be anything from seven to ten years before the connection with the Main Trunk is made. If expedited, the work could be completed in. five years. . The harbor and the railways may be characterised as potentialities that are certain of realisation. These, as we have said, will ot themselves "make" the town, but there are ' other . important "potentialities." There is the oil industry, for inatan/.'. Though its career has been a chequered one so far, no one qualified to express an opinion doubts tbe ultimate succe.--. Qf the field. It is only during the pas! year that the industry has had a fair chance, a fact that is frequently overlooked by critics. At any moment now ii rich flowing well may be struck, and fane such well, with the present moderately producing wells, would place the industry on a stable and profitable footing. The ups and downs the industry has experienced is a'condition m't peculiar to this field. It has characterised nearly every other field that hits attained success. We are not by an,- ' means out of the wood yet; the period of adversity has not ended, but there U good reason to believe that whalever may be the fate of individual companies, the development of the industiy itself will go on with greater vigor than ever, and that success, permanent and not ephemeral, is within sight. There is another "potentiality." It is the development of our ironsand deposits. Various attempts- have been made to commercially develop the sand, with ' more or less success. Iron and steel of i the very best quality were made ' many years ago, and experiments to 1 cheapen the cost of production have ■ been' continuous almost ever since. , Local inventors have been patiently and [ diligently working for several years, ■ and many experiments have been made , with the sand by American and British j metallurgists. Substantial advance has 1 been made by the investigators, and !■ now it is likely that a Glasgow firm ', will erect works on a large scale in or 1 near the.town to convert the sand into iron and steel. At Monday's meeting [ of the Harbor Board, formal application | was made for the right to work the ironsand, and the Board, which, natural- , Iy, is anxious to see such a promising ■ industry established, will do everything within its power to assist the Home , firm. The deposits of sand are inox- ' haustible, and the firm need therefore 1 entertain no fear regarding the suffi- ■ ciency of supplies of the raw ma- ', terial. It is to be hoped the J Glasgow people ' will carry out their > plan. No doubt they have hit , upon a successful process of treat- | ing the sand, which is the rich- • est of its kind in the world, and, if so. . there is no measuring the possibilities of | the industry. It will be conceded, we ' think, that the town is pregnant with • possibilities, and before long musl make | big strides forward.