N.Z. OIL DEPOSITS

Grey River Argus, 11 August 1937, Page 5

N.Z. OIL DEPOSITS

REASON STATED For Nationalisation _i [Per Press Association J. DARGAVILLE, August 10. An inquiry concerning recent remarks made in New Plymouth by the Minister of Mines, Hon. P. C. Webb, was made to the Under-Secretary of Mines, Mr. A. Tyndall, when he was interviewed here this afternoon. “The remarks of the Minister of Mines in regard to the proposed nationalisation of our oil resources,” replied Mr. Tyndall,/‘are being misinterpreted to some extent. Contrary to the suggestion that the Minister’s statement is discouraging to private enterprise in the search for oil, it is the paradoxical truth that -no major private oil interest will embark on a comprehensive drilling programme in New Zealand, unless the national ownership of the potential oil resources is, first of all, established. Mr. Tyndall added: “Legislative precedents for such a policy already exist in England, in Victoria and in Western Australia.”