OIL SPRINGS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVII, Issue 991, 10 May 1862, Page 3

OIL SPRINGS.

The production of oil from the springs in Canada and the United States continues on a scale far greater than the means of transport. At present the refining trade as regards this product seems in a state of only partial organization, and the difficulties and cost of conveyance delay its development. Every fresh account, however, seems to indicate that the supply is virtually illimitable, and that the result will be the growth of a new business, which, for rapidity and extent, will be such as has rarely been parallelled in the history of commercial changes. Hitherto the arrivals in Europe have not been large; but a vessel has just discharged 5000 barrels in the Victoria Dock, and several additional cargoes are daily expected, both here and at Liverpool. The New England houses are gradually withdrawing themselves from the sperm oil trade, with the view of investing their capital in the establishment of refineries (a chance in which they have been assisted by the opportunity of selling some of their old vessels to the Government for the stone blockade at Charleston) and they now appear to have commenced making consignments, especially from Boston, with some degree of regularity. To check this competition the Parafßne patent owners in the United Kindom have commenced a suit in Chancery to prevent the use of that name for the American manufacture. The article, however, must be wholly independent of the name under which it is offered, and will find its market solely according to its claims on the score of quality and cheapness. An increase of purity is being coffstantly effected by the daily experience from its enlarged manufacture, but the question of price cannot be tested until the requisite facilities of transport shall have been established. The prime cost at present is actually almost nominal, but there are 30 miles of bad roads to be traversed before the oil can be placed on the railway either for New York or Boston, and the expenses and difficulties of cartage are enormous. The hardening of the roads by a sharp frost will occasionally make all the difference between very large profits or a direct loss to the wellowners. Lately the oil has been sold at the wells for a sum equal to Is per barrel, and an instance is mentioned of a lot of several hundred barrels having been disposed of at Us, barrels included. Under such circumstances it is only the welhrthat flow spontaneously to the surface that can be worked at a profit, but these yield a seemingly inexhaustible quantity. In the course of less than half-a-year, however, direct railway communication, both in Canada and Pennsylvania, will, it is said, be established into the heart of the principal regions. In Canada the directors of the Great Western line are directing their attention to the requisite measures, and in Pennsylvania an extension of the Atlantic and Great Western line, which connects with the Erie Railway to New York, is stated to have been already commenced to the principal seat of the business, with the certainty of completion in the course of the ensuing spring. Meanwhile the entire district, which a few years back was little more than a wilderness, is becoming thickly peopled, notwithstanding the interference of the war with commercial operations of all kinds. The following are the latest particulars given in the Philadelphia journals:—

" The coal oil of Pennsylvania is rapidly becoming one of the important elements of our industry and wealth. It is scarcely three years old, and even now it bids fair to rival the coal trade itself. The following statement of the shipments on the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad alone will give a comparative idea of the increase of this trade:—ln 1859, 325 barrels; in 1860, 21,794 barrels; in 1861, 134,927 barrels; while for the first month of 1862 the total shipments on this road have been estimated at 30,000 barrels. Large as the business and the increase on this railroad has been, it is estimated that it shows but little more 'than one-sixth of the business actually done. Large quantities of the oil were taken to Pittsburg by way of the Alleghany 'River, and thence to Philadelphia by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Erie Extension Canal carried large quantities to Erie, whence it found its way to the Eastern market by the lake and the railroads in North-western Pennsylvania. It is stated on good authority that the wells on Oil Creek yield 75,000 barrels of crude oil per month, which would be 900,000 per annum. What the yield of the whole oil region in this State will be during the present year cannot be definitely ascertained, but it must reach very considerably over a million barrels of crude oil, for new wells are continually being opened and the trade is making the most astonishing strides, and promises greater wonders still. It has no parallel in this country or in the world, except the Californian gold fever, which it rivals in speculation and excitement. The crude oil, it is said, involves an expense of about $10 per barrel in purchasing barrels, transportation, refining, &c, so that the actual expenditure on 1,000,000 of barrels would be $10,000,000 per annum. The region of country in which such immense wealth is now being developed was, before the excitement caused by ' striking oil,' comparatively thinly populated, and much of it a wilderness, but now it is becoming thickly settled, and new towns are springiug up, and old ones growing into greater proportions. This will make that section one of the most flourishing in the commonwealth, while all the oil seeking an Eastern market and an outlet for Europe must greatly benefit and increase the trade of Philadelphia, the emporium of the State." — Times, Feb. 20.