A BRITISH GAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 January 1921, Page 6

A BRITISH GAIN.

NAURU DISCOVERY. HISTORY OF ENTERPRISE. The history of the discovery and development of the phosphate deposits on Nauru Island, as told in the Journal ,of I Agriculture by Mr. Albert F. Ellis, New . Zealand Commissioner, is as interesting ■ t;3 fiction. “Early in 1900 the phosphate deposits were discovered (writes Mr. Ellis), and as this took pUrce in a rather unusual way the writer is tempted to I relate the incident, particularly as, toI gether with subsequent developments, it I explains the fact that when war broke lout in 1914 a British company, with J headquarters in London, was working < the Nauru deposits under a ninety-nine 1 years’ concession from the German Gov- ; eminent. People had been so accustomed 'to hearing of German penetration of British interests that it appeared in con- ■ livable that a British company could

eglt.’mately penetrate German interests. | Nevertheless that is what actually took ■ clace. Hitherto no first-hand account of ' the discovery has appeared in print, and such accounts as have been written contain various inaccuracies. Just prior to 1900 the writer had been serving as manager on one of the islands of the Pacific Islands Company on the Queensland coast, and had been transferred to the company’s Sydney office, where an analytical laboratory had been installed for the purpose of dealing with samples of • cargoes, etc. His attention was arrested ' by a large block of rock used for keeping iopen the door of the laboratory; in some ' ways it resembled a rare kind of phos- ! phate sock, of which a small deposit had been found in a deep depression on Baker Island in the Phoenix Group, several years previously. On mentioning the matter to the company’s manager he was told that it was a lump of petrified wood found by the manager on Pleasant Island some three years previously, and that one or more geologists had agreed as to its nature. This seemed decisive enough, but somehow, when working in the laboratory, that piece of rock repeatedly attracted the writer’s attention, and some three months afterwards the thought occurred, ‘Why not test it?’ A chip was knocked off, ground up, and tested for phosphate, with such a decided reaction that a complete analysis was made-, and the humble doorchock proved to be phosphate rock of the highest quality. Moreover, from its formation, there were evidences that it came from an old and probably extensive deposit; as to the latter the manager was very emphatic. I‘The question then arose as to how control of the deposit could be obtained, and this matter was promptly taken in hand by the company’s head office in [ London. The position was that a large German chartered company held mineral and other rights over the Germap Cardine and Marshall Islands north of the Equator, and also over Nauru. On the other hand, the Pacific Islands Company, who were the immediate predecessors of the Pacific Phosphate Company, held numerous coeoanut properties and trading stations on the German islands which the chartered company referred to was particularly desirous of acquiring. Negotiations ensued, with the ultimate re-i suit that the Germans acquired the trading stations on their own islands, and the Pacific Islands Company obtained the concession to work Nauru. The Germans also received a certain number of shares in.the company, and a royalty per ton on the phosphate exported, so that it was a transaction which proved profitable to ithem, though not to the extent that it did to the Phosphate Company, and to British interests generally.

“Meanwhile the writer had been sent up to Ocean and Nauru Islands to ascertain the extent and quality of the deposits. The former island'was included, as it was known to be of similar formation to Nauru—namely, an ‘elevated coral island’. It was visited first, and, after a three weeks’ stay there with the natives, arrangements were made for starting operations. Nauru was then visited with a view to ‘seeing everything j and 'saying nothing,’ as negotiations had ( not then been completed. A visit was j first paid to the German Magistrate, and I permission asked, through an interpreter, who had resided there for many years, to prospect the island. They were both very emphatic that there was nothing to find, saying that German • warships, . sometimes with scientists aboard, had [ visited the island annually. The desired ! permission was given, however, and na- [ tive guides were supplied. Proceeding j inland after crossing the coconut belt on j the coast, rising ground was reached, I and this was seen to be phosphate country. The track was followed inland for Iniles, prospecting operations consisting of knocking off a piece of rock occasionally and Testing it with acid, or else scraping a hole in the ground for the same purpose. These frequent operations were watched by ’the natives with blank amazement, and subsequently with smiles of pity. On returning to the settlement they informed one of the European residents that the white man from the steamer was quite mad; he kept examining the rocks, pouring medicine on them, and carrying away pieces in bags—a.procedure so extraordinary to their minds that there could only be*one explanation of it. The Nauru natives arc strong on nicknames. Accordingly the man who first poured medicine on the stones was dubbed ‘the stone man’, and remains so to this day. “When war broke out in .1914 about two-thirds of the company’s staff were British, and the remainder were German, as also, of course, were the Government, officials, supported by a., considerable force of armed black police. As might bh . expected, complications arose before long, with the result that the German Governor ordered the Britishers, with their wives and families, off the island in a neutral vessel then lying there,, which took them across to Ocean Island. Meanwhile, however, the company had been in touch witji the Imperial and Australian authorities, stressing the importance of having the British flag hoisted on Nauru, and about a week after the expulsion of the British staff H.M.A.S. Melbourne suddenly put in an appearance there. The German Governor took a sensible view of the position, and agreed to surrender the island when called on to do so, but as there were many Chinese laborers on the island at the time the formal hoisting of the flag was postponed. Some weeks afterwards a small force of Australian soldiers w.as sent up in the company’s chartered s.s. Messina to occupy the island. She proceeded first to Ocean Island, took aboard the expelled Britishers, and went across and landed them at Nauru, when the flag was hoisted with all due ceremony. The Germans were deported to Sydney, where most of them were interned. Only a few daj r s afterwards a Japanese warship and p. transport with troops arrived off Nauru for the purpose of occupying it, as had just been done with the Carolina and Marshall Groups.” (