1520
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 70

Offer to purchase Iron for Railway-bridges, and Steel Rails, to be manufactured in the Colony.

Mines Department,
Wellington, 4th September, 1896.

NOTICE is hereby given that the Government will be prepared to purchase fifty thousand (50,000) tons of iron of good quality for railway- and bridge-construction, at the rate of about four thousand five hundred (4,500) tons a year, including steel rails, if manufactured in the colony, subject to the under-mentioned conditions and stipulations:—

1. The iron must be manufactured from magnetic or titaniferous ironsand, or iron-ore, which, together with all material, fuel, and fluxes, must be the produce of New Zealand.

2. The iron, and steel rails, must be delivered at a price not exceeding the prices at which similar classes and descriptions of iron, and steel rails, can be procured in the English market, with cost of freight to the colony added thereto.

3. Any iron, or steel rails, which may be offered to the Government in terms of this notice will be examined and tested by an officer to be appointed by the Government, who will be required to give a certificate that the iron, or the steel rails, as the case may be, is of good marketable quality; and such officer will be authorised to make such inquiries as he may consider necessary to enable him to give a certificate that the whole of the material used in the manufacture of the iron or of the steel rails is entirely the produce of the colony.

4. No undertaking can be given that more than the total quantity of iron, or steel rails, above stated will be taken by the Government, at the rate of about 4,500 tons a year, as above specified.

A. J. CADMAN,
Minister of Mines.

Bonus for the Production of Quicksilver.

Mines Office,
Wellington, 19th September, 1895.

NOTICE is hereby given that a bonus of fourpence (4d.) per pound will be paid on the production of the first one hundred thousand pounds weight (100,000lb.) of good marketable retorted quicksilver, free from all impurities, from any mine in New Zealand, on the following conditions, that is to say:—

1. That at least one-third of the quantity is produced on or before the 31st March, 1897, and the remaining two-thirds on or before the 31st March, 1899.

2. No bonus will be payable until the whole of the one hundred thousand pounds (100,000lb.) of quicksilver has been produced as stipulated to the satisfaction of an officer to be appointed by the Minister of Mines, and on whose certificate alone the bonus will be paid.

3. In the event of more than one person producing the required quantities of quicksilver before the dates named, inquiry will be made by the officer above referred to, when, if it is found that each applicant is equally entitled to a bonus, the amount will be divided in proportion to the quantities produced by each applicant, but in no case shall any bonus be paid until at least one hundred thousand pounds (100,000lb.) of quicksilver has been produced in the aggregate.

A. J. CADMAN,
Minister of Mines.

Bonus for Production of Mineral Manure.—Notice No. 445.

Department of Agriculture,
Wellington, 25th July, 1896.

A BONUS of £200 is hereby offered for the discovery and working within the colony of a deposit or deposits of marketable mineral manure.

The following are the conditions under which the bonus is offered and will be paid:—

1. That the raw material be easily accessible, and within reasonable distance of a road or railway.

2. That the person appointed by the Minister for Agriculture to examine the deposit is satisfied that there is sufficient to meet all ordinary demands for five years.

3. That at least 200 tons of such manure have been disposed of at a price which will allow of its being remuneratively used for agricultural purposes, and that a further supply can be placed on the market at the same price.

4. That, if the deposit be mineral coprolites, it shall contain by analysis at least 20 per cent. of phosphoric acid.

5. That, if the deposit be mineral apatites, it shall contain by analysis at least 25 per cent. of phosphoric acid.

Applications addressed to “The Hon. the Minister for Agriculture, Wellington,” will be received up to and including the 1st day of August, 1897.

JOHN McKENZIE,
Minister for Agriculture.

Bonuses for Encouragement of New Zealand Hemp (Phormium tenax) Industry.—Notice No. 430.

Department of Agriculture,
Wellington, 1st November, 1895.

Bonus No. 1.

A BONUS of £1,750 is offered for a machine or process for dressing New Zealand hemp (Phormium tenax) which shall be an improvement on the machines or processes now in use, and which shall, after trial, be found to materially reduce the cost of production, improve the product, or increase the quantity of dressed fibre.

The following are the conditions:—

1. All applications for the bonus must be sent addressed to the Hon. the Minister for Agriculture, Wellington, and must reach him not later than the 31st March, 1897. Each application must be accompanied by a description of the machine or process, particularly stating improvements on present machines or processes, and also the cost at which the machine or process can be supplied.

2. The applicants must be prepared to submit their machines or processes to examination at such time and place as the Government may direct.

3. The Government shall appoint a committee of three or more experts, to whom all applications shall be submitted. Such committee shall, after perusal, state what machines or processes they deem worthy of consideration, and may inspect the same at any place within the colony; and, having so inspected the whole or any of them, may direct that the whole or any of them be brought for further trial to such place as they may think fit.

The cost of bringing the machines or appliances on to the ground, from within the colony, supplying the necessary shafting, motive-power, and buildings, to be defrayed by the Government. If any machine sent from beyond the colony is awarded the bonus or part thereof, then the cost of bringing such machine shall be borne by the Government.

The following shall be the basis of the test:—
The committee shall supply a sufficient and equal quantity of green hemp to each machine or process as a test.
The committee shall take into consideration—
The time occupied by each machine or process in the operation;
The cost of labour and time required after the fibre has left the machine or process before it is ready for baling;
The percentage of dressed fibre and tow produced by each machine or process;
The cost of producing the same;
The cost of the machine, and the simplicity and durability of the working parts.

On completion of the tests the committee shall furnish a report to the Minister on all the machines or processes which they have examined or tested, and shall state,—
(1.) The machine or process which they consider on the whole the most efficient and economic.
(2.) Whether they consider that any machine or process tested so materially reduces the cost of production, or improves the product, as to be worthy of the whole bonus or of a part only.
(3.) Whether, in the event of no one machine or process being entitled to the whole bonus, they deem any machine or process worthy of a part of the bonus, and, if so, how much.

Bonus No. 2.

A bonus of £250 is offered for a process of utilising the waste products of the hemp.

The first three conditions of Bonus No. 1 to apply to this also.

The committee shall supply a sufficient and equal quantity of the waste products to each process as a test.

On completion of the tests the committee shall report to the Minister, and shall give the following particulars of each process: (a.) The nature of the article made. (b.) The quantity produced, and the cost of production. (c.) The value of the product. (d.) Whether any of the processes are of sufficient importance to warrant the Minister in giving (1) the whole, or (2) any part, of the bonus; (3) if a part only, how much.

JOHN McKENZIE,
Minister for Agriculture.

Bonus for the Manufacture of Potassium Cyanide.

Department of Industries and Commerce,
Wellington, 17th January, 1895.

NOTICE is hereby given that a bonus of £1,000 will be paid for the erection of a plant and the manufacture in New Zealand of the first 200 tons of crude cyanide of potassium from colonial produce.