The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-11-25
DEPOSITS OF PHOSPHATE
IN ISLANDS OF PACIFIC
ROMANTIC STORY OF DISCOVERY
AND ACQUISITION BY ENG
LiSH COMPANY.

NAAeAi Oiu u outDSlOne. +. X. &. -. in
the New York Herald.
The decision of the European peace
conference to place the late German
possession of Nauru under the Joint
administration of Great Britain. Ans
tralia and New Zealand calls atten-
ton to the romantic story of the phos-
plate industry of this lonely little is
land right on the equator in the CEN
ter of the wide Pacific and. incident
ally also to Ocean island, where the
business of mining this wonderful fer
tilizer had its birth.
Ocean island is the smaller of the
two. 1t is some 100 miles distant from
Nauru, a mere speck of land a thous-
and acres in extent having a cfrcum-
ference of about five miles You can
walk right around it in about an hour.
Nauru is rather larger having an
area of 5000 acres and circumfer-
ence of about u miles. Both are
largely composed of very high grade
phosphate of lime. a magic plant food
and a prime fertilizer.
Ocean island has always been a
British possession, but Nauru was
German until the Australians wrested
it from her during the war. Quite
early in the campaign it was rushed
by the Australians because the Ger
mans had erected here a powerful
wireless station whose tall mast could
be seen from the deck of a steamer
two hours before the island itself
came in sight. When they landed
they found the Germans had hidden
the working parts of the wireless
plant and search was at once institut-
ed. In this the Australians were as
sisted by an old dog, who led the men
to a cave and there started scratch
ing. Seeming something unusual, the
men uncovered the mouth of the cav
ern and there found the instruments,
and a few hours later they were in
communication with the British war
ships in the Pacific.
Romance Of Discovery.
How the rich phosphate fields of
these islands came to be discovered
and their subsequent development is
one of the romances of industry Less
than 40 years ago they were looked |
upon as small, isolated coral rocks of !
no particular value True, whalers |
used to call at them to take on sup
plies of water or pumpkins but that /
was all No one imagined that these /
1espised islands were destined to be- /
come one of the greatest commercial
assets of the Pacific.
Some 20 years ago the Pacific Is
lands Trading and Guano company, a
New Zealand concern. which can take
The credit of opening trade with many
Islands now developing into great
commercial Importance had a tiny
office in a back street
n Sydney. n. S w. A door stopper,
bluff colored, irregular shaped piece
If rock, kept the front door open. This
title bit of rock held its humble po-
Iition for many years, kicked here,
ossed there, sometimes taken up and
examined curiously, but always re-
urned to it's lowly position One day
man who was interested in guano
md knew a little about phosphate
'ock put the little block in his pocket
md walked off with it to his tiny bed
Dom in a lodging house. There he
ubjected the rock to a series of tests
md in a few days was so amazed and
atisfied with the results that he
fastened to the office to trace the
history of the door stopper.
The little bit of buff colored rock
ad been brought by a trader from
)cean island who thought ut was a
unny specimen of stone and might
rake marbles for little boys to play
With" But the man who now so
arefully and even fOndly carried the
DOR stopper about with him or rath-
r all that was left of it after the
ests. knew of something that was
Ding to startle the commercial and
gricultural worlds. Off he went to
,cean island by the very first trad
1g schooner. In a few months he re-