NEW INDUSTRY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLV, Issue 10431, 8 November 1919, Page 4

NEW INDUSTRY

»—— PARENGA GUMFIELDS ENOBMOITS AND VALUABLE DEPOSITS. Special to the "Times." DAKGAVILLE, November 7. The oil works of Parenga Gumfields, Ltd., at Eedhill, were officially opened 1 nt noon to-day by Dr l'itchctt in the presence, of visitors from all parts of Now Zealand, ' Dr Fitchett expressod the opinion that tho work would prove successful, resulting in an industry second to none... I A NEW EI? A. Ifr Gr. E. Aldorton, tho managing director, in referring to tho company said : I am very "leased to see so many people hero to-day to witness the launching of an industry which must usher in ' a new era for these northern districts. Quite recently an Auckland paper published a rather sensational article copied from tho London "Daily Chronicle" head.■d "A Great British Oilfield—A Romance of Snalo"; this article referred to tho discovery of an immense snalo field in Norfolk, England, and characterised it as ouo of the greatest discoveries of any age. Were I to use tho same language hero to-day I should bo called an exaggerated optimist. Yet tho discovery they have made in England is no greater than wo have hero to-day. Tho claim that shale will produco one ton of oil from three tons of shale. So it will, and 00 will the uukau of our gum swamps. Our oil is an infinitely more valuable one than shale oil. Shale produces fuel oil, naptha. and lubricating oil, with paraffin and sulphato of ammonia as by-products. Kauri oil will give as its fractions, motor spirit, a valuable solvent oil, a tur-: pontine substitute, paint and varnish oils. While tho process of distilling shale or kauri oil is practically the same, and the cost about the same, the cost of working a kauri swamp is infinitely less than working a shale deposit, which is really a matter of ordinary mining. If then tho "Daily Chronicle" is - in saying tho discovery in England is ono ' of tho greatest discoveries of any age, wo are justified in saying our discovery is equally as valuable. I havo' mr.do the statement that tho Government, of this Dominion has in the gum swamps which belong to the Crown in tho north—about 10(5,0(X) acres—sufficient wealth in their oil contents to easily pay off the wholo ■war debt, but I know that just for the moment, at any rate, this rather bold statement will not be viewed quite seriously. But if this great discovery has been made in England after so many centuries in an old settled country, is it altogether impossible for its to discover something very similar? After all, the only difference" is this: that shale is a "andstono saturated with oil, and pukau is part of the soil of a buried kauri forest saturated ■with the oil of tho kauri tree. .WASHING THE GUM. Leavimr tho oil question for a moment, 1 would refer to 'uito another phaso of i our industry—that of tho kauri gum it- ! solf, which, as you will havo seen, is a 1 subsidiary branch of our business. Wo havo, as you sea, erected a plant for washing the gum from the soil. This is for extracting tho small gum known as nuts, chips.) and seed gum * from the pukau. Previously this work was dona by hand, .with moves. By tho process wo havo adopted each washing machine will turn out three tons of gum a day, j and tho rosiduo from this washing is' saved, and later put through tho oil works for it 3 oil contents. At the present time we do not know tho value of tho residue for oil as we havo not yot

tested it. But coming to the value fot gum you have seen to-day tho result of, fifty cubic yards of pukau put through the washing machine. Tho actual value of the gum recovered from, this lifts yards is JESI 7s Gd. This, as you have seen, is just taken from the face of the swamp, and is a fair average of the whole. Chir previous estimate of the value of our pukau was .£1 per yard gross, a value which is now fully < onfirmed, and our experts who have itported on the extent of our swamps here and at Parenga givo it as thoir opinion that tho eompanv owns ncjt less than 6,500,00 U cubio yards of this pukau, worth, as stated .£1 per yard. So that if wo leave oil out of the question altogether, 1 the company has a field to work on as ■ rich as any alluvial aoldmine. > And now I want to say why wo have . added this gum washing process to cur . business. There has been a great divcrsity of opinion as to whether it is ■ moro profitable to extract the gum and • sell it, or make tho whole body of pukau | into oil. Those who have not studied the oil question are strongly of opinion I that there is moro money in the gum, ' and among these is Br Maclaurin, tho Government Analyst, who in his evidence before the Parliamentary Industries Com- ' mitteo went so, far as to say "That to make cim> into oil was like making butter into lubricating oil." I disagree en- ' tiroly with Br Maclaurin, but there is just the possibility that Dr Maclaurin, when yieaking of cum refers to tho larger gum -the bold cum of commorce, which is moro valuable, and in that case he might bo right. But taking the extract of pukau. wo find that treating as beforementioned, wo get £1 5s 9d in gum values from, a yard of pukau, whilo wo find that by putting a yard of pukau through tho works for oil,, we get 75 gallons of oil. which wo believe to bo worth in its crude state 2s Gd por gallon, which would, mean £0 7s Cd per yard of pukau. That is gross; tho cost of treatment should never exceed Gd a gallon, and that would make the net value of pukau for oil JE7 10s a yard. The dif- j feronco between the two values is very large, but there 13 something to come, from the residue from tho gum washings : treated for oil. It is an important point which we havo to clear up, and that can be'done shortly, but it may not alter our present programme, as it is much ■better not to have all our eggs in the one basket, and gum can he turned ci.t and sold immediately while tiir.i. will reasonably clause before the oil can bo propertlv treated and marketed. ' POSITION REGARDING THE OIL. Coming ,to the oil, the position is this: Tho works as you huvo seen are complete and •running and it is anticipated that they will exceed in output what was expected of them. They are built to turn out 46D0 galions per week, and trial runs indicuto that that quantity may be exceeded. The present works havo cost approximately XIO.OGO, and are built eo that additions can bo made as required. An additional plant may also be ejected to treat the timber from the swamps, which is thickly plastered with gum, and from this a high-class tur pontine can be made. The bark, limbs and roots of the kauri yield 110 gallons of oil to .tho ton, and are richer than the pukau itself. It is estimated that the best 6wainps carrv fully 500 tons of timber to the acre, and if a good turpentine can be produced, it would be another rich asset, as turpentine is nowworth from 10s to 12s a gallon. We could make it from this timber for 9d ! a gallon. We have delayed erecting a , refinery as we propose opening furtlior works at Parenga and it will be necessary to make the one refinery servo both placos. Wo intend immediately erecting further gum washing plants at our ; Parenga fields, as these are simple nnd inexpensive, but no further oil works will bo erected until tho present.is found to be as efficient as it is possible to make it. Visitors to tho field to-day will have i seen for thomselvos that tho layer of ' pukau is generally four feet thick, and ; having only one foot of over-burthen tho cost of working is just nominal. Tin- , liko mining, there is no delving into tho earth to be done, and absolutely no

wasteful work. It approximates most Hourly to ordinary alluvial mining, with on unlimited supply of "wa,*h dirt" yieldinpr in gum .t'l to tho cubic yard, and ivo liave everything we want in th? way of fuel and water. We have abundance of peat for fuel, and find, it quite suitable for both retort and boilers. It is reputed, to contain some oil, but for our purposes it serves best as a fuel. To wash gum successfully, abundance of water is absolutely necessary, and we aro very fortunate in having an ample supply at all points. In fact it is possible that we. may at one place treat the swamp by ordinary sluicing. Our engineer thinks it quite feasible, and it would be very economical. We intend to place all our employees on a profit-sharing basis so that our interests may be mutual, and should our profits be as large as we anticipate, our employees will share the bench!'. V/e are hoping that other compame= will embark in the oil business, as tho demand for oils of any kind is unlimited, and the more companies operating the easier it will be to develop the industry and promote trade. We may oui'solves possibly consider the advisability of forming subsidiary companies to take over and work portions of our estate, as we own at least sis distinct fields, and all equally rich. AN ENORMOUS .FIELD. Summarising our position to-day, .it is this: That wo have in sight on our properties at .least six and a half million yards of the -gum containing pukau, valued for gum only at .SI per yard, which represents -£8,500.C00. But if we treat it entirely for oil, it represents in oil contents 487 million gallons of oil, and if ivo put the valuo of th. 3 oil as low as Is a gallon it represents =£2-1.375,000. The field which ia open for development, in the north is so large that tho figures assume an. appalling size, but when it is known that the Government owns at least 100,000 acres of these swamp lands in the north, the Colonial Treasurer should havo no difficulty in finding a way of wiping out the whole war debt. There is easily i .6100,000,000 in these northern swampsjust as much wealth as there is in the great shalo deposits now found in Norfolk, England, which has been ajAiy described by the London "Daily Chrouiclo" as "the greatest discovery of any age." This is thu royal opportunity tor a Colonial Treasurer to make good, jur.t by the magic Tvaft of his wand—converting this groat hidden northern.treasure into gold, and to say to tho taxpayers of this country. "Here is all the money I want to pay off the war debt and free the Dominion from th<-. incubus imposed upon us by the world tragedy." The opinion was expressed by commercial men present that the industry would ultimately be greater than thedairying or meat industry.