[14] Sulphur retort
J.A. Wilson, Judge of the Native Land Court, bought a half share in the island in 1874 and began to mine sulphur. In 1879 and 1880 raw sulphur was being exported to Sydney. In 1883 the New Zealand Manure and Chemical Company was formed. Wilson bought land at Sulphur Point in Tauranga and built a factory to turn sulphur into sulphuric acid. The Tauranga Works opened in 1883, but 1886 a loss of NZ$2456 was announced. Wilson was blamed for the loss. Angru about that he informed the Northern Star Company that daytrippers were no longer allowed to land on the island.
After the Tarawera Eruption of 10 June 1886 the men working on the island left in a hurry. Though large quantities of sulphur were processed in 1899, the Tauranga Works were closed in 1900 and sold to A. Gray in 1907. He bought out the other part holders and owned the island until 1913 when he sold to A.A. Mercer and J. Brown, representatives of the White Island Sulphur Company of Vancouver, Canada. The company resumed mining and built a boilerhouse and retorts on the island.
The raw material was heated in retorts to melt and collect the sulphur. The condition of the retort gives evidence of the corrosive gases exhaled by the crater and fumaroles. Metal is affected worst, but concrete and wood are slowly destroyed, too. Even plastic can't resist this chemical attack: The pilot showed as a device for collecting rain which lay next to a wooden post because the plastic fittings had disintegrated. The installation wasn't older than a week!
[14] Sulphur retort
In 1914 everything was ready, but it was a year of disasters. After three months of operation a retort burst and killed a fireman. It was found the retorts had been corroded so badly the whole process had to be modified. Soon after another fireman disappeared without trace.
By September, a small crew of 10 men was working on the island. On 18 September, all was well. When the supply boat went to the island one week later, nobody reacted to the siren. Because the boat had no dingy with it, the skipper couldn't land and returned a few days later. He found the topography of the whole island had changed. A part of the crater rim had collapsed, and there was no trace of the camp, the boiler house and the men.
Several rescue parties couldn't find any relicts. The search was difficoult for the ground was hot and large boulders covered the area. Probably a landslide combined with thermal activity had been responsible for the catastrophe. People on the mainland had heard loud explosions and the smell of sulphur had also been noticeable along the coast.
[13] Path of the 1914 lahar (view from crater to sulphur plant)
The small mounds cover huge rocks which have been carried by the lahar. Some mounds have been eroded so the blocks became visible.
After the disaster the island was abandoned for nine years until A.A. Mercer bought it in 1923. The White Island Agricultural and Chemical Company was set up in 1925 and in 1927 it was renamed in White Island Products. A large ferro-concrete factory building and a camp on the outer slopes of the crater was erected (note the raw sulphur coming out of a broken bunker on picture [12]). A tractor with a front end loader, a portable steam engine, two trucks and a drilling rig made the work more effective.
[12] Aerial view of sulphur plant
White Island Products concentrated on making fertiliser. Some were
praising the benefits in glowing terms, others were less satisfied. On
farmer claimed it was good for killing weeds in his driveway. By 1930 the
company was still loosing money and the Depression forced the closing of the
works. The was the end of all sulphur mining on the island.
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