IS IT HELIUM GAS?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 127, 1 June 1938, Page 5

IS IT HELIUM GAS?

SAMPLE FOR TESTING. HOPES ON WEST COAST. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. The possibility that helium gas has been found on the West Coast is arous: ing much speculation around Ross, where steps are being taken by the supervisor of a Government Department to take samples, which will be sent to the Government Analyst at Wellington The new gas in odourless, tasteless I and non-combustible, qualities which are found only in helium. No means have j yet been taken to test its lightness. Mr. John Murdoch, ex-Mayor of Ross, who is visiting Christthurch. says that the gas was found by Mr. William Wright, who lives about 15 miles out of Ross, in what is regarded as rough back country. He was sinking a shaft for a cess pit when he found an odourless natural gas flowing out of the shaft. He mentioned it to Mr. Murdoch, and they came to the conclusion that it might be helium. At the point of issue the gas hisses out so strongly that, as somebody said, it would almost be possible to put a mouth organ to it and play a tune. Carbon dioxide is also a gas with no smell and is non-combustible, while deoxygenated air, often found in mine shafts, is another odourless, colourless gas. ,