TARANAKI.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 49, 1 May 1866, Page 2

TARANAKI.

The Alpha. Well. —Messrs. Carter and Co. have snnk about fifteen feet further during the week, and the well is now therefore about 95 feet deep ; they would have got deeper, we believe, but have been trying some change in their boring apparatus. They state that the oil is now obtainable hi paying quantities, but they are goiug deeper in hopes of making it a " flowiug well," in which Aye hope they may succeed. Taranaki Petroleum Company. —This Company has issued its prospectus. The capital is to be £l 0,000 in £10 shares, the share list to remain open till May 26. The provisional directors are Messrs. R. Chilman, C. Brown, W. Weston, T. King, and J. C. Sharland. People's Petroleum Company. —The shares of this Company (1,000 of £l each) were all applied for by last Saturday, and a meeting will be held shortly to consider the propriety of increasiug the capital to £2,000. In the Council the following applications for leases of land on which to bore for petroleum were laid on the table. A renewed application from Messrs. Bates & Co. asking for a portiou of the beach near tho Mission Station ; one from Mr. Hulke on behalf of Messrs. Stamford & Co., of Melbourne, asking for 50 acres of land at the foot of the ranges ; an application from J. H. Hackett. of Otago, for a portion of the Sugar Loaf reserve ; aud two from Mr. Hulke, one asking for a lease of the island Mikotahi and a portion of the beach, the other for a lease of fifty acres of bush land at the foot of tho ranges, adjoining Messrs. Hirst and Tlammerton's claim, where it is said an oil spring has been discovered.

The Council weut into Committee on the resolution proposing terms of petroleum leases to be grunted to Mr. Chilean's com*

pany, and passed the following resolution on division, Mr. TJpjohu (who wished to have the land divided into smaller portions) beiug the only dissentient : " That the Company shall have the right to sink for petroleum on the following lands, viz. : the part of the Sugar Loaf Reserve west of Carter's claim, and containing about 110 acres ; the Sugar-loaf Island Pararaki, and all that portion of land lying between said reserve and low water mark, which lands are more clearly ■defined ou the accompanying map, and colored pink — and that a lease be grauted for the term and ou the conditions hereinafter mentioned. That the Company shall be allowed to sink for petroleum on the Island Mikotahi, on the condition that if it is required for harbor works they shall give up possession to the Government without any compensation whatever for any works in progress."

Prmuc Recreation. — We call the attention of all persons interested in out-door sports to the following resolution -which will be moved in the Council on Tuesday next, by the Provincial Secretary : — " That this Council is of opinion it is advisable that that portion of the Public Reserves known as the Race Coarse should be let by public auction, for the term of ten years, reserving the ri"ht of the public to the ground for the purposes of racing, cricketing, and walking thereon, and that the charges made by the lessee for admittance during racing should be fixed by the lease." — Herald, April 28.