SCRAP METAL DRIVE

Taranaki Daily News, 23 September 1940, Page 4

SCRAP METAL DRIVE

COVERAGE OF STRATFORD SCORES OF TONS SAVED

Five lorries carried scrap metal from hundreds of Stratford homes on Saturday when, with the borough collection, the three days' drive in Stratford and district, instigated by the district committee for the NationaT Council for the Utilisation of Waste, was concluded. The country district collection, on Thursday and Friday, was made by the Stratford County Council trucks, and Satux-day's borough collection was made by three borough council and two P.W.D. trucks. Council and departmental staff mcmbers gave their services free of charge and several men of the Union Foundries staff, under Mr. H. F. Vosseler, classified the material and helped to sort it into heaps. The transport scheme was organised by Mr. R. R. Curtis. The chairman of the waste committee, Mr. H. S. Sinclair, was also on the job. A conservative estimate of the vaiue of the metal in the depot on Saturday morning placed it at £110 10s made up as follows: Aluminium, half-ton, £16; brass. two tons, £50: cast. iron, 12 tons, £36; lead, one ton, £9 10s. This did not include the value of a shed packed to the roof with cardboard and brown paper and another large heap of similar material still at Kleeman and Bishop's Garage. "I thlnk the response has been magnificent, and one of the most noticeable features of the collection was the fact that very little material of no use or outside the present requirements was put out." Mr. Sinclair commented. "It is evident," he added, "that people took notice of our requirements as set out in circulars and through the Press and acted accordingly. If the response ln this district is any criterion, the collection throughout New Zealand must run into thousands of tons of valuable material." The material at the depot was sorted into heaps. The zinc and lead section included a smattering of type metal, but mostly pipes of the type used for plumbIng purposes and sheet zinc. Car batteries were plentiful. Everything from old stoves to sewing machine frames figured in the cast-iron heap.