N.Z. PETROLEUM.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1018, 6 January 1911, Page 2

N.Z. PETROLEUM.

ITS POSSIBILITIES. Sir,—Mr. \V. Eglinston, chairman o£ tlii) Augio-Trmidau oiitie»ils Syuuwate, Lid., stated at a shakenolilers' uietmag ol nis company time: "xnnidau possessed an oiltield toe extent 01 wmch ic was ini])o»iulc uj gauge at jiresenc,but au expert nail stated, m a must conservative estimate, tnat it had a money value of alwut j.tii,(fUU,OOU sterling." What tlieii must be tlio vaiuo of the New Zealand onbelds.' Concerning which Mr. J. 1). Henry, one of JSngiand's greatest oil expsrts, stated:—"juy reading of the geological data- uf these (New Zealand) lielus lias led me to form the ojimion that the oil indications are uncommonly good. There are well-defined antiehinais, numerous oil seepages and gas escapes, and, better than ail these, producing _ wells drilled without the assistance of outside capital. Thero is nothing which I have recently seen ill tlio oiliiolds of the West Indies (Trinidad) and Newfoundland that cannot be duplicated by the oil-bearing territories of New Zealand." Alto, on another occasion, at a meeting of the Oil Trust, Ltd., held in Lonuon in July last, Mr. Henry, after referring to the oilfields of Trinidad and Newfoundland, said:—"l now come to New Zealand, where thero are larger, if not more important, oilfields."

In New Zealand we have what may be called an "all-the-year-round" drilling climate (a milder Devon). Such a climate does not exist in Trinidad, .as the following remarks by Mr. Hunter, of the firm of Thompson and Hunter (technical advisers to the Guapo, Trinidad, Oil Company, Ltd.), will show:—"As you are aware, of .course, Trinidad lies "" in the Tropics, and, in common with other places there, you have fevers and malaria, and we attach a great deal of importance to selecting locations where your men can live in a healthy condition, and, for that purpose, we have sent out a mosquito-proof bungalow. You will have to pay them for the risk of getting ill. w Mr. Hunter also, states, in reporting to the Maikop and General Petroleum Trust (English company): "One must also regard the field (Maikop) from a geographical point of view. It is within a short, distance (some 50 miles) from the seaboard. s Other. European fields. have not this advantage, they being seme hundreds of miles away' from a seaport." I may here say-that America, in many cases, pipes her oil .1200. miles to the sea coast at enormous expense, and it is necessary along tho line to have powerful pumping stations to forco the oil over the mountains. I see by reading reports of company meetings that they all make much of the fact of being near tile seaboard. Hero in New Zealand we have our oil wells on the sea coast. This would mean a saving of millions of capital, and thus a huge sum of money, which otherwise would be spent on pipelines, would find its way into tho shareholders' pockets.

Now, sir, in the face of all this, the apathy shown in Now Zealand over our ■wonderfully promising prospective industry is indeed truly remarkable! " Another matter I should like to touch on is the prevalent idea ,as to our nnt being able to find a market for our oil. This is an entirely erroneous impression, as the chairman of one of the largest oil companies in the world recently stated.'to his holders. I pive his remarks:—"lf you find oillanguishinß as a fuel, it is not because there is tco much of it, but because there ig too little. If there were more prorfuc-ers there would be more consumers. If there was a reliable. supply there would be a much wider demand. I myself know of great railway companies and other potential consumers who would substitute oil for coal to-morrow if they were certain that the oi! would be permanently and. regularly forthcoming."—l am, etc.;' A. E. WATKINS . / (Watkins and Fox).