IRON WORKS DISAPPOINTMENT

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21176, 27 July 1940, Page 6

IRON WORKS DISAPPOINTMENT

How easily the New Zealand Government might have blundered into a costly iron and steel industry but for the precaution taken to test the supplies of ore was disclosed in Parliament by the Hon. D. G. Sullivan. It now seems that the optimism displayed when the Government took power to develop the industry was mostly unjustified. The Government had had disappointment after disappointment, the Minister said. At first supplies of ore were apparently limitless. Then they ceased to be limitless. They were now down to concrete figures which had been substantially reduced. Quantities estimated at between 10,000,000 and 12,000,000 tons were now known to exist, and further investigation would disclose some more The decision having been taken to develop the industry at a cost of at least £5,000,000, the money expended on an exhaustive survey of the ore deposits was an investment for which New Zealand can be thankful. The Government is determined to leave nothing to chance but to pursue the investigation until it has certain knowledge of the amount and the quality of the ore available. Although the Minister is confident that the industry should be established, even with the known quantities of ore available, a considerable modification of the original plans seems to be indicated. Twelve or even twenty million tons of ore is not sufficient for the establishment, of a plant that will cost millions of pounds and be useless when the ore is exhausted. Expert advice was that ironsand should be mixed with the Onekaka ore in the proportion of 16 or 18 per cent. That percentage has since been increased to 20 or 25 per cent., and might be still further increased. As the position stands the establishment of the plant is not likely to proceed for some time. But the legislation empowering the Government to borrow £5,000,000 for the purpose is still on the Statute Book and might be invoked when the Government thinks fit. In the meantime private enterprise is debarred from operating even a modest plant which might more nearly approximate to New Zealand’s requirements. The question is sure to arise, when, the war situation clears, whether the Government is justified in holding the sole rights to iron industry developments when private firms are willing to spend their own money in proving whether ironsand or ore in the Dominion offers a profitable field for development.