A MINE OF WEALTH UNTOLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1918, Page 2

A MINE OF WEALTH UNTOLD.

SPITSBERGEN'S. BICH DEPOSITS. Some time ago it was announced that the British flag had been hoisted i& Ebeltaft Harbor, in Spitsbergen, and that the German houses there and the German wireless station had been destroyed Spitzbergen, a group oJ islands in the Arctic Ocean, lie between Franz-Josef Land and Greenland. The islands are not; permanently inhabited* but hunters for foxes, bears, reindeer, seals, and walruses pay regular visits. Coal and marble are among the minerals known to be: on the; islands, which, however, were not claimed by any nation ptevious to theGefc. man claim a year or two ago. , ! The Daily Express recently published an. interview with. Mr SalisburyJones, leader of the ; British SpUizbergen Expedition,' on Ma return to London. . . '

"Happily," he said, "Spitzbergen will never lie another Heligoland to thu country On the -contrary, it will bs Britain's Arctic Gibraltar, the northern entrance wtrar islandsy for-it possesses the most magnificent deep-water harbors I have ■ ever aeeii iii 'iny ; world travels. Our vessel carried large immbeTS' cf miners, enormous quantities jof mining material, and tty-ee and a half years' food : 'supply. 1 When I Ml you. that Swedish expert's estimate th'at thore' SiiHiards of'tona of Spitzhergcn, you .inay'lealisfi. iiow, alliiniportant it, is. v There-'ajjre' fr<s4ri to fifty liiles of m'ountfuiia: wimainfeg the richest iron in the wi>rjd Jls for Goal, vast seam's 'of it are Visible on the hillsides. Both tie co£l-a)td' the iron are easily and cheaply mined by quarrying and; tunnelling, not by costly pits as in "England. When we have clinched out hold on Spitzbergen we shall be able to meet not only Britain's coal and iron requirements, but also those of the great Scandinavian and .North-West Russia markets. Coal is now £l6 10s a ton in Norway! Can you wonder, therefore, that th'e Norwegians and Swedes have been desperately* anxious to exploit Spitzbergen? We found some 800 Norwegians and Swedes there, and last year they had 120,000 tons of shipping at work on Spitzbergen coal and iron for' Scandinavia. All the same, those neutrals are now confining their activities to a comparatively little space in the island. British interests, thinks to (Mir Navy, have gained the upper Gerioaajfa iaiovaoa-existenV' ~-.[q