At least three enterprises failed because they could not overcome technical problems. Undeterred, a Mr E. Purser addressed the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1895. He concluded: "If New Zealand is to become the great nation which nature intended her to be, by the rich endowments of mineral wealth, the time is none too soon when we should make a great effort to develop them; and, above all, her iron deposits are the most valuable ..."
He continued, "Owing to the vastly superior article got from the titaniferous sand, it is not hoping for too much that at an early date New Zealand will become a powerful competitor with the world in the production of both iron and steel.
"While giving employment to a large portion of the population, the spending-power of the people would be such as to justify the manufacture locally of many classes of goods that are now imported."
Purser's vision may have included competing with imported cutlery from Sheffield. At Auckland Museum we can see an elegant carving set made in 1862 from Taranaki steel by Mosely and Sons in London.
But when the Government-owned New Zealand Steel plant opened at Glenbrook in 1970 the output graduated from steel billets to pipes and roofing iron.
Today, the company (privatised in 1987 and now a subsidiary of an Australian business) offers an industrial product range at the branded, high-quality, service-driven end of the spectrum. It is a field exposed to competitive forces driven by big business and political interests. Diversification may help.
The founding chairman of New Zealand Steel was Woolf Fisher. The domestic appliance company he created with Maurice Paykel in 1934 constantly anticipated and adapted to changing economic and political circumstances.
While it was unfortunate that Fisher & Paykel Appliances was caught with a high inventory when the GFC struck, it is significant that its Chinese owners have chosen to invest heavily in the innovative design and engineering resources based in Dunedin and Auckland.
Meanwhile, the off-shoot company Fisher & Paykel Healthcare has built a global niche market. Its commitment to user-focused research and development has made it one of the best performers on our sharemarket. Can New Zealand Steel emulate this?
The Fisher & Paykel businesses built value from our human capital. New Zealand Steel has the extra benefit of "possibly the most valuable iron in the world".
Decades of dedication to innovation, quality and continuous improvement have positioned our food and wine at the upper end of global markets. Can we add maximum value to our world-class titaniferous sand by setting up a cutlery industry to rival the quality of Sheffield and the designs of Scandinavia?
A hint of the design potential simmering in our midst was glimpsed when young Auckland-based industrial designer Jamie McLellan created his stacked cutlery concept. Such small-scale high-value use of our titanium-rich sand deserves serious investigation.