230 Transactions. 



; The pieces 1, 2, and 3, which were drawn down from a large section, 

 are superior to the pieces 4 and 5, which were tested in same section as 

 received. 



" The results show the iron to be of a hard and unyielding character, 

 but it evidently is improved by working ; it would require this before it 

 could be safely used in engineering-works. The mean breaking-weight is 

 high, but the contraction at the fractured area and the elongation are low, 

 showing the iron to be as I state. 



" A further test of the iron was made by bending cold, and the results 

 were fairly good : two pieces were bent double and showed but few cracks. 

 ' The steel was made into tools for use in the wheel and other lathes ; 

 these were given to the turners with instructions to use them for a week 

 and then report. Their report was very favourable : they say the tools 

 stood as well as most of those made from the imported article.'' 



The company then resorted to manufacturing wrought iron from scrap, 

 but this was not profitable. First-class chemists were engaged in the labo- 

 ratory, Mr. D. S. Galbraith working very hard in the hope of overcoming 

 difficulties, but this was never done. 



The company struggled on until November, 1886, when, with its capital 

 spent and a liability of £20,000, an attempt was made to reconstruct ; but 

 the shareholders would not find money, and the assets of the company 

 were taken over by the mortgagee. For a short time it was worked under 

 tribute in the manufacture of bar iron from scrap, but this was never profit- 

 able, and finally the plant was broken up and shipped to China, to be used 

 there in new ironworks. 



So ended the most serious attempt at manufacturing iron from the 

 sands of New Zealand, and one wonders now why it was not a success. 

 Everything was done that could be thought of at the time by all con- 

 cerned, for they were sanguine to the last, and hoped to retrieve the 

 fortune spent in endeavouring to create a great industry for the Dominion. 



Art. XXV. — Notes on the Autecology of certain Plants of the Peridotite 

 Belt, Nelson : Part I Structure of some of the Plants (No. 1). 



By M. Winifred Betts, M.Sc. 

 Communicated bv Professor Benham, F.R.S. 



[Bead before the Otago Institute, 9th October, 1917 ; received by Editors, 29th December, 



1917 ; issued separately, 24th June, 1918.] 



Introduction. 



At a short distance from the city of Nelson there is an area known as the 

 ' Mineral Belt." This is a zone of boulder-strewn land-surface, often dun- 

 coloured in appearance, underlain by peridotite and serpentine rocks, which 

 extends from D'Urville Island, in Cook Strait, south-west for a distance of 

 sixty miles. It is an almost continuous band, but it disappears for about a 

 mile between the valleys of the Lee and Serpentine Rivers. At its nar- 

 rowest part the Mineral Belt is 100 yards wide, and it reaches its maximum 

 width of 3 miles 50 chains in the vicinity of the Dun Mountain. The area 

 occupied by the Mineral Belt is about 29 \ square miles.* 



* J. M. Bell, E. de C. Clabke, and P. Marshall, The Dun Mountain Subdivision, 

 N.Z. Gcol Sun: Bull. No. 12, 1911. 



