The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 87
[From Daily Times, September 29, 1877]
The people of Oamaru are proverbially known as very progressive. They have an immense belief in their own district and its resources. Their land, both town and country, has of late immensely advanced in at least nominal value, and the harbour works are being vigorously pushed forward to a point which will render the port of Oamaru a safe and expeditious shipping place for vessels of considerable tonnage. It is but natural, therefore, that at last one of the principal products of the district—the Oamaru building stone—should have been looked on as destined to be a future export of the place on a large scale. For years past the stone has been sent in small quantities to Dunedin, but the difficulties and expense of transport of such heavy blocks as are required for buildings have prevented its being used so largely as it would otherwise have been. This is still more the case as regards Melbourne, to which place a few small shipments have with difficulty been made, and where a very large market is believed to exist for it. It is a stone specially adapted for a dry climate, and at a reasonable cost it would be much used in Victoria. The railways now completed have removed some of the difficulties of transport from the quarries to the port, but in order to work the stone quarries economically, a considerable amount of machinery and plant is required, and a systematic plan of working. The Oamaru people have taken the bull by the horns, and propose to start a Stone Export Company with a capital of £25,000, to be raised partly in Oamaru and partly in Melbourne; and we know few enterprises of a more promising character. It is calculated that the stone can be laid down in Dunedin at about a shilling a cubic foot, and in Melbourne at two shillings, if received in large quantities directly from the railway trucks into steamers or sailing vessels alongside the wharf at Oamaru, and delivered at the wharves in Dunedin or Melbourne. It is quite certain that a large trade can be done at a cheaper rate than a small one; and if the efforts to establish a trade with Melbourne are successful, it must cheapen the cost of supplies to Dunedin as well. The scheme is one, therefore, which claims something more than local interest, and its success would, of course, be a boon to the colony as well as to Oamaru itself. There are, it is believed, hundreds of millions of tons of the stone within the district, though not all of equally good quality, and its working is entirely a matter of labour, machinery, and carriage. We hope, therefore, that the proposed Company will get a fair start, as the industry to be developed is a very important one, in which a large amount of labour and capital will hereafter be employed.