SOUTH PACIFIC PETROLEUM COMPANY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3602, 27 January 1883, Page 2

SOUTH PACIFIC PETROLEUM COMPANY.

Mr Stubbs returned to town to-day from the South Pacific oil springs. He reports that he visited the springs on Tuesday last, and remained till Wednesday evening, spending the whole of the time working at the derrick with the exception of three or four hours. The bore was suidc twenty feet during the vi.sit, making a total depth of 102 feet. Gas is accumulating freely in the tube, but not to such an extent as to cause trouble, and a little oil also collects there

Mr Stubbs tested the straightness of the tube by reflecting the sun on to the bottom. The water at the bottom looked a perfect circle, proving that the hole was dead plumb. He also tested it with a lead plummet, and it could be distinctly seen oscillating very gently over the centre of the bottom. Mr Weaver, the working manager, is unremitting in his attention to the work. During a week, and while drilling through the upper soft strata, he only removed his clothes once, and his eye and ear arc so. well practised that at a distance of two or three hundred yards he can tell if the drill is working properly in the tube. is working properly in the tube. No doubt Mr Weaver is the first practical driller we have had working in New Zealand, and it is already proposed to introduce a similar man to start drilling from the bottom of the Southern Cross shaft. Mr Stubbs leaves again for Poverty Bay to-night to visit the Southern Cross springs, and to watch the interests of the shareholders generally.