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176

J. WATT

now that so far all efforts to establish it as an iron industry have failed, it behoves us to try and utilize its vast mineral wealth in another direction, and establish an industry for the manufacture of paints from that ore, an industry that for value to the country would be second to none in the Dominion. And it is for that purpose I am here to-day, to try and place before you sufficient indisputable facts that will induce you on the strength of the evidence to recommend the Government to give the necessary practical assistance, protection, encouragement, and patronage required to establish an industry that would be second to none in the Dominion, and for which there* is an unlimited demand, importing as we do over £200,000 worth of paint a year (I have not been able to see the official report for 1918). 1 presume every year to come the demand will be greater; the Government alone, in Railway and Bridge Departments, are the largest consumer, and yet their patronage of the locally manufactured article, of equal value, does not exceed £10 a year —certainly not much encouragement to local industry or enterprise. 1 ant confident that almost every known colour at present on the market could be produced from the Parapara ore and other minerals in the Nelson District. Some eighteen months ago, in company with a Government analyst and another gentleman, I visited Parapara and secured a large assortment of the various shades of ore, from which I personally, with very crude appliances, succeeded in getting a splendid jet black, a good dark and light brown, a yellow, and a red, in an endeavour to secure an Indian red, which at present is worth over £100 per ton. I may say that my friend, a large paint-manufacturer, has, in conjunction with Professor Easterfield, been experimenting in the same direction, which experiments are still proceeding. But the manufacturer advises me that no matter how much money he may spend in this direction, the Government so far prefers to use imported paints rather than encourage local industry or manufacture, although the locally manufactured paint in several instances was superior to the imported, as the luematite manufactured from the Parapara ore is admitted to be by qualified experts the finest in the world. Again, close at hand we have a deposit of first-class-quality chrome-ore, from which some very fine marketable chrome has been produced. Chrome to-day is worth something like, or over, £336 a ton. Then we have copper-ore, which so far we have not been able to convert into marketable metallic ore, but with very little apparatus or plant could be easily converted into a valuable product—viz., sulphate of copper, which is quoted locally to-day at £112 a ton, a price quite equal to the metallic product, with the tenth of plant expenditure. Then we have another specially valuable mineral in barium sulphate, which is not only valuable in conjunction with paint-manufacture, but bids fair to be a very valuable commodity in the manufacture of paper; and that is an industry that is certain to be established on a large scale in manufacturing paper from the many suitable New Zealand woods, as it is one of the principal ingredients used in loading the paper, hence a valuable commodity. Then we have numerous by-products that are at present being wasted or thrown into the sea —I refer to the tar-oils and ammonia-water at gasworks, &c, which are being wasted all over the country, with one or two exceptions. From this, motor-spirit and the finest disinfectant could be made. Then, as to the tar itself, it is practically wasted or given away, as it is sold locally at 4d. a, gallon, which ere long will be worth as many shillings, or where are we going to get our aniline dyes for which Germany has held the monopoly for so many years? A law has just been passed prohibiting the importation of dyes unless those of British manufacture. Then why should not New Zealand produce her own dyes? We have a surplus of raw material, and only require some practical Government assistance and inducement to establish the industry. These are only a few of the valuable resources of Nelson District. One more and I am done —that is, the extraction of wax from lignite or brown coal, a monopoly which has also been held by Germany for years, and who had to send to New Zealand for the raw material or lignite. I could give you the names of the firms who supplied, only 1 might be blamed for accusing firms of dealing with alien countries, although they simply availed themselves of what we possessed but had not the enterprise to avail ourselves of. Mow that we have additional .advantages added let us avail ourselves of them, and with the favourable recommendations of the Industries Committee we trust the Government will give such practical assistance and encouragement that many of the industries referred to will be an accomplished fact. I am quite aware that it is the easiest thing in the world lo find fault, and often very difficult to find a remedy for the same. Therefore I hope you will excuse my audacity in suggesting a remedy: First, that the Government offer a bonus of, say, £1,000 for the first 10 tons of sulphate of copper, sold at market price, made from copper-deposits in the Nelson District, and a further bonus of £10 a ton for every further ton sold up to 100 tons; second, that a bonus of £1,000 be paid for the first 5 tons of chrome produced from chrome-ore found in Nelson District, and sold at market price, with a reasonable bonus per ton for further production; third, that a £1,000 bonus be paid for the first £1,000 worth of mixed paints made from Parapara ore-deposit, and sold at market price; fourth, that a bonus of £1,000 be paid for the production of the first £1,000 worth of aniline dyes produced from tar and sold at market prices. You may say that is asking a specially large amount of bonus money for Nelson. Quite so; but Nelson is, I think, entitled to special consideration, as the Government from one estate alone—the Cawthron Estate—received £40,000 in stamp duty; therefore Nelson is entitled to special consideration. So that I am only asking a tenth of what the district made them a present of out of a bequest made to the people of Nelson —some £250,000 for the sole purpose of establishing a Scientific Research Institute; and although this was bequeathed three years ago, and although we have 250 college boys (the future scientists of the people), 206 girls (the future mothers of the nation), and 607 students attending technical schools, all eager to engage in scientific research, yet the trustees have absolutely refused to spend a single penny for the benefit of those whose enormous fortune they hold in trust. The only individuals who have received a farthing of benefit are the lawyers engaged in litigation ami the trustees who engaged them. I should therefore respectfully ask if it is not possible to