FORTUNE FROM OIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22468, 11 July 1936, Page 5 (Supplement)

FORTUNE FROM OIL

A PIONEER'S FAITH In the .days when few people thought that oil would ever bo <lll important factor in world industry, a small group of men in London believed that the new fuel would bring a revolution in transport. How their faith was justified is the story that lies behind the details, published recently of the will of Mr. Henry Kevillo Benjamin, one of the original directors of the Shell Transport and lrading Company, who left £150,705. Mr. Benjamin, who died in March, flged 81, was associated with the first Lord Bearsted, formerly Mr. Marcus Samuel, who founded the company. He put Ins money in oil —and received a rich return for his enterpriso. Mr. Samuel's-father had set up ft business in carrying 'marine shells from the East to London, hut at the end of last century the possibilities in oil —then, used for crude lamps—were realised, and the Shell company was formed. It challenged (he supremacy of Rockefeller's Standard Oil concern, and later, in association with the Royal Butch company, came to control oilfields nil over the world and to own a fleet of ships with a carrying capacity °f 2,250,000 tons. The concern is one of the most powerful in Britain and has interests in almost cverv country.