SITES FOR OIL TANKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18946, 18 February 1925, Page 10

SITES FOR OIL TANKS.

SIR ROBERT COHEN'S VISIT. LUNCH WITH BUSINESSMEN* Sir Robert Waley Cohen, managing director of the Shell Transport and Trading Company, and of the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company, who is on a visit to New Zealand in connection with the business interests of these concerns, was escorted yesterday by the chairman of tho Auckland Harbour Board, Mr. H. R. Mackenzie, on a water excursion to various possible sites for oil tanks on the shores of the Waiteraata. The intention of the Harbour Board has always been to establish tanks at Kauri Point, _ It is understood, however, that the oil companies prefer to find sites on the city side of the harbour, and that this was tho main point kept in view in yesterday's inspection. At mid-day Sir Robert met at luncheon, at the Hotel Cargen, a large company of Auckland business men, in whose name Sir George Elliot bade him welcome to the city. Sir Robert's health was toasted, on the invitation of the president of tho Auckland Chamber of Commerce, Mr. A. A. Martin. In the course of his reply Sir Robert pointed out that one of tho peculiarities of the oil business was the intimate way in which it was mixed up with tho prosperity of every country where industries were carried on. It was an industry of interest to everybody, because of its importance in developing transport in all countries and making communication between country and country easier and cheaper. There was no such thing as an oil monopoly, in the sense in which the term was ordinarily used. In point of fact, the concentration of the oil businesses of the world in comparatively few hands was the one thing that had made it possible for petrol to bo as widely and economically distributed as it was to-day.