A VALUABLE POSSESSION.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 February 1919, Page 3

A VALUABLE POSSESSION.

"*HB ISLAND OF NAURU. j PHOSPHATE ROCK DEPOSITS. A true account of Nauru Island, in the- Central Pacific, as given by a commercial man whose interests are in the phosphate on the island, is particularly of special value at the present time in view of the demands being made by Mr Massey, and Mr Hughes, on behalf of New Zealand and Australia, for mandatory control of the island. The island was formerly held by Germany for many years, but it was exploited by a British company by arrangement with the German authorities for the phosphate deposits. Quite a romance is attached to this phosphate of lime enterprise of the Central Pacific. Many years ago a now defuDct but once justly famous commercial concern, the 'Tacifie Islands Company" had a small, unpretentious office in one of the side streets of Sydney. A peculiar-looking piece of rock served as a chock to keep the office door open. It was tossed here, kicked there, #lamined curiously by some, but unheeded by most pasßers-by. A metnber of the staff took it up, examined it, and subjected it to chemical tests; and as a result an investigation was set afoot to trace the origin of the insignificant bit of buff-colored rock. It had been brought from Nauru Island some years before by a commercial man, who was interested in geology, and who considered it -was petrified wood, It proved to be the key to a rich storehouse of nature and to treasure islands in the Pacific, The venture was eagerly seized upon and exploited by the people who made the discovery, anil who secured the concession to work the deposits. Concerning the Island, which is situated iust south of the line, the informant said it was about three times the size of Rangitoto Island, and was inhabited by some 1200 aboriginals, besides those employed in the phosphate industry. When: under the German flag it was administered along with the Marshall Islands, though the languages are not identical. The island contains a beautiful lagoon in the interior that teams with fish. This lagoon is divided up into a number of sections by means of coeoanut leaves, each section being owned by a group of families. The spawn of the fish is caught on the seaward reef, and carried across in coeoanut shells and liberated in the lagoon, within a year growing into fine fish. The fish are caught in nets, ana along with eocoanuts go to make the staple food of the inhabitants in the central area. In all there are about 20 of these sections, which are claimed by the leading families of the island. There are about ten or eleven native villages, all situated adjacent to the sea. On the outskirts of the island the land is mostly flat, but in the interior it is hilly. New Zealand farmers have been getting the benefit of Nauru phosphate, in the form of super-phosphate, manufactured in Australia, and shipped across here. There are numerous enormous deposits of phosphate throughout (he world, for instance, Florida, Idaho, Wyoming. Tunis, and Egypt, etc., but nearly all of these are outside the British Empire, consequently the Nauru deposit should be controlled by Great Britain for the benefit of the' Empire generaly.