OIL PROSPECTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 155, 2 June 1937, Page 8

OIL PROSPECTS.

Although New Zealand is within the oil zone boring for petroleum has not achieved results of farreaching importance. In recent years it has been carried out in Taranaki, Hawke’s Bay, Canterbury, Southland, and Westland, and the State, recognising the importance of the matter, has by bonuses, subsidies, and loans helped oil prospecting operations throughout the Dominion. In a statement which he presented to the House of Representatives in 1933, the Prime Minister of the day (Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) observed that the prospects of discovering in New Zealand a flow of oil sufficient for the Dominion’s own requirements and possibly those of Australia were considered good enough to warrant an early and intensive investigation. Two years later, when the subject was raised in Parliament by the member for Waitomo (Mr W. J. Broadfoot), Mr Forbes again affirmed the Government’s intention to undertake the necessary examination of strata where indications point to the existence of oil, but said that drilling was an expensive matter and enquiries were proceeding as to whether such expenditure was justified. With the National Government’s defeat the task became one for the Labour regime, which is investigating a possible source of oil near Milford Sound. The supplies are said 'to lie in a huge fault extending for nearly 20 miles along the coast from Martins Bay, and have been indicated by seepages from which oil of “such purity was taken as to be used by the research party for heating purposes.” The field has apparently been known since the beginning of the century, when the late Professoi Black of Otago University on discovering it became greatly impressed by its future possibilities. The advice of Dr. Woolnough, the Australian Government's geological adviser, that any indication of oil being found here should be thoroughly investigated, is Avorthy of every consideration. The British GoA 7emment has passed legislation to encourage oil boring in England which also produces a very large quantity from coal derivatives. The Dominion is also interested in the latter phase of the subject, but it is a very costly bustness and natural flows of oil are to be desired. The importance of the subject cannot be too greatly stressed, for a world war might very quickly leave the Dominion isolated in the matter of supplies.