Romantic Story of Pacific Phosphate Industry
pp. 19-22 · Read in the full issue
Unsuspected Wealth In Barren Rocks
FOR one hundred years, adventurous men from Europe, America, and Asia have roamed up and down the wide Pacific seeking treasure. They found it in many shapes—in sandal wood, pearls, in rich oils and rare spices, in slaves and in women, and in these later decades, in gold.
But for over one hundred years they did not recognise, and trampled un derfoot, the richest treasure yet pro duced by the Pacific—namely, phos phate rock —a thing which is the re sult of the long action of sunshine and sea-water upon the droppings of incredible millions of sea birds, accu mulated over thousands of years.
The fertiliser known as super-phos phate is made from phosphate rock, with certain things added; and super phosphate adds enormously to the productiveness of wheatfields, gar dens, and pastures, throughout the temperate zones of the world. Phos phate comes from many parts of the world; but about one-seventh of the world’s total suoply, now in sight, is in the Pacific. Pacific phosphate is by far the richest in the world; and it comes chiefly from three islands— namely, Nauru, Ocean Island, and Makatea.
The phosphate on those islands is worth about £2 per ton, as it is; and there are in sight, on the three islands, many millions of tons of phosphate.
The value of super-phosphate, as a fertiliser, was generally recognised in the early days of this century, and the search for phosphate became in tense. A few men with scientific minds and long, shrewd vision, de cided that there might be supplies of phosphate in the Pacific; but, as they realised that if their hopes were con firmed, certain islands would suddenly spring from worthlessness into a value of almost incalculable millions of pounds, they proceeded with great caution.
Between 1900 and 1912, these men— mostly Englishmen and Australians — discovered and proved the value of the enormous deposits of phosphate on the three islands named. One (Ocean Island) was British; Nauru was German; and Makatea was French; and all three nations bene fited. But the original plan, and the development, was largely British. To day, mining and transportation of the phosphate, and its conversion into super-phosphate, give employment to thousands of people, and millions of pounds of capital.
But the most remarkable feature of this chapter of Pacific history is that for so long those ardent wealth seekers—pirates, and traders, “black birders” and whalers—landed almost daily upon those usually barren and comparatively unattractive islands, and never suspected that the sub stance upon which they walked was almost immediately convertible into wealth beyond the dreams of a Midas.
ONE of the first men who went into the Pacific, on a search for phos phate, was a chemist, Mr. Alfred Stephen, who has been for long con nected with the technological staff of the British Phosphate Commission, and who now is living in retirement in Sydney. In an address to the Pacific Islands Club in Sydney on May 3, Mr. Stephen told the fascinating story of how phosphate was found in the Pacific Islands in the early years of this century, and how the great industry was developed.
In his search for phosphate he visited most of the island groups in the Pacific, and he thus had an op portunity of making the acquaintance of several branches of the Polynesian race, just before they abandoned their own culture for the culture of the Europeans. Mr. Stephen brought the trained mind of the scientist, not only to his work, but to his meetings with the Polynesians, and with cer tain Melanesian tribes—especially in and about the Solomons —and his ob servations are of a valuable character.
Those who heard his lecture at the P.I. Club function urged him to give effect to his long-contemplated plan of putting his immense store of valu able material into book form.
MR. STEPHEN traced the growth of the phosphate industry in the Pacific from its discovery up to the present time. Early in the century, Mr. H. E. Benson, manager of a trading company, the Pacific Islands Company, paid a visit to Nauru, and when he returned to Sydney, he brought a block of white-coloured rock. He had it examined but was told it had only scientific value—probably it was part of a petrified tree.
For two years, the block of stone was used as a stopper for a door in the Pacific Is. Trading Co.’s office in Macquarie Place, Sydney. But one day Mr. George Ellis noticed it, and had a piece crushed and analysed. It was found to be phosphate of a particularly high-grade. There were obstacles, however, as Nauru (Pleasant
Island) was German territory, and had been leased by a German trading company, the Jaluit Qessellschaft.
Mr. James Mortensen, a super-cargo on one of the Pacific Islands Com pany’s boats, suggested that if there was valuable phosphate on Nauru, it was feasible that there was phosphate also on Ocean Island, which was near by, similar in type, and a British possession. With strict injunctions to observe secrecy, he was sent to Ocean Island and returned with several samples of good phosphate, and sub sequently Mr. George Ellis and a Mr.
F. Danvers Power left with an expedi tlon for ° cean Island, The Pacific Islands Company (which had been formed out of interests for merly controlled by F. T. Arundel & Co. (England) and Henderson, Me-
Farlane & Co. (New Zealand) obtained certain rights on Ocean Island, and made a working arrangement with the German interests in Nauru. It was liquidated, and the British Phosphate Company was formed, and it worked both islands. After the war, when Germany lost Nauru, the British Phos phate Commission was formed, and to-day controls production on Ocean Island and Nauru.
After three years on Nauru and Ocean Island with the Pacific Islands Company, Mr. Stephen left the com pany and joined an expedition to in vestigate phosphate possibilities on Makatea (French Oceania). Return ing to Australia he formed several syndicates of his own and, after study ing many old books at the Mitchell Library, Sydney, he made a list of islands in the Pacific which he thought might be rich in phosphate.
IN the course of his investigations of these islands, Mr. Stephen travelled many thousands of miles, all over the Pacific. He found many islands which closely resembled Ocean Island in structure —one of them Atiu, in the Cook Islands—but none of them had deposits of any commercial value.
One strange feature regarding the discovery of phosphates on Nauru and Ocean Island was that, even if an in tensive search of all islands in the Pacific had been made, probably those islands would have been the last visited, because of the popular belief, at the time, that phosphates could only be found in places where there were many birds. Nauru and Ocean Island are practically barren of bird life.
Mr. Stephen is of opinion that Ocean Island, because of traces of coral on the highest parts of the is land, was submerged for a long time after it had been a refuge for birds, and that during this period, before it was thrown up again, bird life dis appeared from that region.
Seventh Day Adventist Missionaries on Pit cairn island. On the left are Mr. and Mrs.
A. G. Judge, recent visitors from New Zealand; and, on the right, Mr. and Mrs. F. P. Ward, of Australia, who are stationed there.—Photo, sup plied by Mrs. Ada Christian.
How close the Germans were to discovering the phosphate on Nauru was illustrated by Mr. Stephen. A photograph of two pear-shaped pieces of rock, about nine inches long, was shown. These, Mr. Stephen said, were once used generally by the natives as sinkers for their fishing lines; and the Germans, who were great collectors of native curios, eagerly seized upon these specimens of native hand work and sent them to museums back in the Fatherland. Those. innocentlooking sinkers were almost pure phosphate!
Mr. Stephen emphasised the value of the Nauru and Ocean Island phos phate to Australia and New Zealand by asking his audience to imagine what would happen if that supply of fertiliser were cut off by an outbreak of war.
Japan Could Seize the Phosphate Islands fact that the rich phosphate A islands of Nauru and Ocean Island could easily be seized by Japan, to the serious embarrassment of agri
cultural industry in Australia and New Zealand, was pointed out in an article in the “N.Z. Herald” on April 18: One of the great Pacific prizes Japan would attempt to secure in a war in which she and her Allies were opposed to Britain would be Nauru and Ocean Islands, with their vast phosphate deposits. The transference of the United States Fleet from the Atlantic to the Pacific may, if the natural presumption is correct, have an important bearing upon the fate of these islands should war occur.
Their vulnerability in the absence of strong naval protection is obvious.
The nearest island of the Caroline Group, formerly mandated to Japan, but now annexed by her, to Nauru, is only 400 miles away, and Nauru, like Ocean Island, has no land defences.
More important for the naval pur poses of a hostile Japan, however, is the Truk Lagoon of the Carolines, 1,000 miles distant from Nauru. This lagoon has every natural advantage as a naval base. The barrier reef has a circumference of 100 miles and through it are deep channels leading to perfectly sheltered anchorages.
Many islands dot the lagoon, and a fleet could lie among them in securitv.
Should Japan be able there to main tain naval power stronger than could be sent against it, her occupation of the phosphate islands would be cer tain.
Japan uses large quantities of phos nhate, the average annual import be ing about 1,000,000 tons. She buys it in the world market, heavy supplies coming from Florida, Northern Africa and Christmas Island, with occasional shipments from Nauru or Ocean Is lands. Present' economic stringency appears to have reduced her phos phate imports, but the fertiliser is necessary to maintain her primary production.
Thus, in the event of war, she would have the greatest incentive to seize the deposits which are so important to New Zealand and Australia, and make herself independent of all other sources. The money value of the prize temporarily held would be tremen dous, to say nothing of the crop value of the fertiliser.