FUTURE OF OIL

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7978, 8 December 1911, Page 5

FUTURE OF OIL

KEW ZEALAND’S LIQUID WEALTH.

EHOM OUR SPECIAL CORBESPOKDENI. LONDON, October di._ Everybody has Beard of Jttocliefeller’e millions and or tlio richness oi the oiiheius in some .parts of Europe and America, but few people have any mea of the reserves of liquid wealth that remain untou-cii-ed witiuu tho borders of our own Empire. To-day England buys her oil from the foreigner, but there is no reason, in the opinion of Mr J. L. Henry* ouo oi tho best-informed oil experts, why British Empire wells should not supply the rapidly-growing demands of British oil-users, including tho navy, with its ! oil fuel' ships. .. ... ** I believo there is more oil in British possessions and dependencies, Mr Henry writes in a book which ho has just published through Messrs Bradbury and Agnew, of London, * f than there is In some of tho greatest producing fields in Europe." ~ , ... This is a statement which will cause astonishment to those who have not Mr Henry's knowledge, and his book, Oil Fields of New Zealand,” will awaken the interest of those who have hitherto been unaware of the fact that New Zealand is already an oil-producing country. In the north-west ■of Canada, also, oil exploration work has .been .begun this summer, and operations in New Bruns* wick leave no doubts, Mr Henry believes, that in this region of the Dominion production on a commercial scale -will be effected. Thus in Australasia and in Canada there is a prospect of a groat oil industry (being built up, yet Mr Henry emphasises the fact that '< nothing has occurred to secure for it more than a few spasmodic rises in public favour." “ There is a reason for this/' Mr Henry says, in explanation of the lack of appreciation of the Empire’s oil resources, and he gives the reason, in plain words. It is the disaster which has befallen speculators in foreign oil concerns. ]lo mentions an instance in . which a London company plunged into a " wilderness called an oilfield ” in America, in which "a million of capital gave tho shareholders nothing better than two dry holes.” “AVe have a shameful record of mistakes in foreign oldfields,” he adds. “In many fields we seem to have only invested money to lose it. . .” “ VVo can only make a success of this colonial business,'” he states, ‘‘if hew concerns operate on the lines which have made outstanding, successes of scores of foreign companies working at their own centres of industry.” i Mr Henry’s hook tells the story of tho New Zealand oilfields, with pictures of the chief wells. . . It is as an Empire proposition that the subject appeals to his sympathies. He points out’ that our sources of petrolnow in naval us&—are ■ foreign, and ho asks what is to happen in war time if our petrol supplies are cut off. " We must hasten the time,” ho says, (‘ Trhen we shall have our supplies o* oil guaranteed by our colonics and dependencies. and a .home system of ordinary and reserve storage, ample in capacity and protected against attack by an enemy.”