228 



Transactions . 



ordered from Tangyes Limited, to provide gas for heating furnaces, firing 

 boilers, &c, it not being proposed to use coal in any furnace or place. 



The site on which the experimental furnace was erected was purchased, 

 consisting of about 5 acres on the south-east side of the Onehunga railway- 

 station, from which a siding was run into the works. It had a water 

 frontage, which became valuable by a canal being cut to deep water to 

 enable vessels of light draught to come right into the works, so that West- 

 port or Newcastle coal could be delivered direct. It was a fine site, having 

 many advantages, several springs providing a good supply of fresh water. 

 It was admirably situated for cheap and economical working, for it was 

 intended that the ironsand should be brought from the North Head of 

 Manukau Heads, where a Government lease, of sixty-six years, was obtained 

 for 6 j miles of beach and 1,000 acres of land, on which there were millions 

 of tons of iron. There was good shelter and deep water at the Heads for 

 loading, it being proved from actual experience that the sand could be 

 raised, trucked, delivered to vessel, and conveyed to works at a cost not 

 exceeding 6s. 8d. per ton. The average sample of ironsand obtained from 

 the Manukau Heads would analyse as follows :— 



iron-oxiae 



Titanium 



Lime 



Magnesia 



Silica . . 



Loss 



88-88 



0-30 



Trace 



9-98 

 0-84 



100-00 



Equal to 66-36 per cent. iron. 



The patience of the shareholders was somewhat tried by the long wait 

 for machinery to come from Great Britain. Contracts were let for a furnace- 

 house to contain the forge-train, which measured 106 ft. by 100 ft. The 

 roof of this building had a single span. There was also a similar building, 

 100 ft. square, for the merchant mills and reheating furnaces. Offices, 

 laboratory, carpenters' and engineers 1 workshops, foundry complete with 

 cupola, set of furnaces for making crucible steel, storage, drying and mixing 

 shed for coal and sand, were all got under way, and, in addition, a brick- 

 kiln, which turned out 200,000 firebricks before the machinery arrived. 



The prospects were bright and every one was sanguine of success ; but 

 on the 23rd December the company suffered a great blow by Mr. W. H. 

 Jones quarrelling with a bricklayer, whom an hour or two afterwards lie 

 shot in the main street of Onehunga, for which he got ten years' hard 

 labour. No suitable man could be obtained from America, and it was 

 thought that Mr. Edmund Otway, an old ironmaster, would fill the position, 

 which he did for some months. He was a very capable man, but unfor- 

 tunately he broke down and died in June, 1884. This was looked upon 

 as a serious loss, but fortunately the position was filled by Mr. John 

 Heskett, at one time manager of one of Bolckow Vaughan's works at 

 Micldlesborougli, who proved to be thoroughly capable, and manfully 

 carried on the work. He, unfortunately, had to fight against great diffi- 

 culties through ill health, and finally broke down at a critical time, when 

 the works were completed and ready to commence operations. 



On the 7th November, 1884, the first machinery arrived from England ; 

 it was quickly erected, for by the 1st May, 1885, the fires were lit in two 

 furnaces, when it was shown that 1 ton of bars could be made from 3 tons 



