PATIENCE REWARDED.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 79, 13 December 1887, Page 2

PATIENCE REWARDED.

The reported success of the South Pacific Petroleum Company in striking oil has caused no little excitement throughout the district. At last it appears as if the patience and perseverance of the directors and the shareholders is about to be rewarded in a practical manner. When the first announcement was made on Saturday afternoon that a flow had been obtained there was very little credence given to the statement, and even when later on full particulars of an outburst of oil, followed by a conflagration, was circulated, the correctness of the re-

port was doubted. For years past we have been subjected too much to dis- ' appointment to readily believe that success has at last been attained, and no one can take exception to the many credulous remarks that are now being made. As a matter of fact there are many who would not believe in the existence of oil until they see it flowing out of the pipe. No one could object to this class of people were it not that they never seem happy unless they are decrying the district—the district in which they intend to make their homes. They cannot say anything to bad of any undertaking that does not prove an immediate success, nor will they accredit the promoters with anything but mercenary motives. With the oil industry this has proved no exception. There can hardly be a breath of doubt that there is every indication of a payable well, but whether it proves so or not remains yet to be seen. The enor-

mous good that would follow were the industry to be established is so patent, and has so often been set forth by us that further comment on that head is unnecessary. The district is now brought into prominence by the development on Friday, and throughout New Zealand and Australia further news will eagerly be looked for. - B seems as if we arc to have all the good things come upon us at the one time. First of all we are to have our native land laws so altered that the Maori and European are to be placed on the same footing as regards the disposal of their lands, then we are to have the waste lands of the Crown thrown open to settlement on liberal terms, and now the cake has been iced by the striking of oil. The burning of the derrick is most unfortunate, necessitating as it will, a delay of fully a month. Mr Weaver assures us that another foot down will make assurance doubly sure, but, of course, nothing further can be done until the derrick is re-erected. This is only as a dr op in the ocean as compared to the past, especially as it is asserted by those who ought to know that the artery has been tapped.