SCRAP IRON.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 September 1918, Page 6

SCRAP IRON.

A GENERAL CLEARING-UP. ] Auckland, Sept. 12. Never in the history of New Zealand has there been such a clearing up of the country's old iron scrap heaps as has taken place within the last three or four years of war. The piles of rusty horseshoes formerly to be seen outside many blacksmiths' shops have long since disappeared, and fragments of disused ma--chinery, old rails, broken down and obsolete engines, and all kinds of odds and ends, have been put to useful purpose, after years of exposure to wind and weather. Many foundries are now practically running on scrap iron. "We are buying up every bit of old cast iron we can lay our hands on," said the manager of an Auckland foundry. "We have always bought up certain quantities of scrap iron, but now we are practically dependent on it, Cast iron scraps are melted down and mixed with pig iron, and in this way we are able to conserve our supplies of the latter. Before the war we paid about £3 a ton for old cast iron, and are now paying £7. The price for new pig iron, which was formerly a little over £4 a ton, has now advanced to anything from £l4 to £2O. The Home market is now closed, but we are etill getting a little from India and Australia, the embargo on export from the latter country having recently been lifted. The advance in the price of wrought iron is said to be even greater, supplies of new material being practically unprocurable. Steel plates, for instance, formerly costing £lO per ton, are now difficult to procure at £BS. All kinds of scraps of wrought iron are being bought up for useful purposes, and the second-hand dealer who in. old times was content to sell at 30s or £2 a ton is now receiving £4O for the same stuff."