744 Proceedtiiijfi. 



labour in tliis colony. Fifty or sixty patents have been obtained for 

 utilising ironsancl, INIr. ^hishet alone liaving over twenty patent rights 

 secured, some of them expressly for the Taranaki sand. Works have 

 been erected in many places— as, for instance, at Moisie on the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, and at Taranaki and Onehunga, but none had been commer- 

 cially successful. Several magnetic separators iiad been invented and 

 used. He had seen one at work at Onehunga several years ago. But the 

 difficulty is that the grains of ironsand often consist of different minerals, 

 some of which are deleterious to the iron : but if the magnetic ore which 

 is alone pure predominates, then the whole grain is lifted by the magnet 

 and passed on to the smelting-furnace. The only novelty in ]\Ir. Purser's 

 process, so far as he knew, is the employment of glue as a cementing 

 material, in order to bind the sand so that it can stand the blast of the 

 reducing-furuaoe. Without a search it would not be safe to conclude as 

 to whether his idea had been forestalled ; but it was a good idea, and was, 

 in fact, an improved application of the Indian cementation process, only 

 the reducing-power of glue as compared with moist charcoal powder 

 would bo very small, and special fuel for i-eduction of the oxide to the 

 metallic state would have to be employed. The whole matter is one for 

 careful experiment in order to test the cost of production compared with 

 the market-value of the product. He had himself examined the results 

 obtained at tiie Hinui works, near Taranaki, and they were not favour- 

 a.ble. Mr. Purser's process is certainly a great improvement, and he 

 wished it every success; but the estimnte of cost which had been given 

 required verification, and, what is more important, the purity and value 

 of the metal produced on a large .scale of working must be placed beyond 

 doubt. Cast steel should be aimed at ; but if there is the least trace of 

 titanium in it it may prove worthless for some kinds of work. 



Mr. Maskell said that there had been many processes invented for 

 dealing with this so called ironsand, but none appeared to have suc- 

 ceeded, and it did not seem to him that the present one promised better 

 than the others. 



Mr. Hustwick considered that the difficulties in connection with this 

 sand were nearer solution thau ever before. If the impurities can be 

 removed on a small scale they can also be removed on a large scale. 

 There was a distinct advantage in having steel that is made direct, as it is 

 so much used now. 



Mr. Purser did not think that sands fro)n other countries could com- 

 pete with the New Zealand sand, which is richer in ore, and our climate 

 is so much more favourable. He did not think there would be much 

 difficulty in getting rid of the titanium: it is not magnetic, and would 

 not be taken up. Mr. Purser concluded by describing the process of 

 making the briquette, and explained how he arrived at his estimate of 

 cost. 



2. " Oil an Eclipse Phenoiiienou." by Major-General 

 Schaw. 



3. "On a Wellington Weather Prognostic," by Major- 

 General Schaw. (Transactions, p. 71.) 



Sir .lames Hector said that the remarks made by General Schaw re 

 the eclipse do not apply only to eclipses, but would also apply to any 

 light. In answer to Mr. Maskell, he explained on the blackboard how the 

 barometer falls with a north-west wind and rises with a south wind 

 during the eastward progress of a cyclonic circulation the limit of which 

 lies to the south of Wellington. 



General Schaw, in reply, said that the answer to Mr. Maskell's ques- 

 tion was given in every modern book on meteorology, as explained by 

 Sir J. Hector. 



