OIL IN AUSTRALIA “THIM OIRISH THROUBLES.”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18349, 13 September 1921, Page 8

OIL IN AUSTRALIA

“THIM OIRISH THROUBLES.”

PROSPECTORS CONFIDENT OP • SUCCESS. A SENSATIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, September 5. Various interests and individuals are not relaxing their endeavours to find oil in commercial quantities in Australia, and at two points in New South Wales, one in Queensland, and one in Western Australia, at "least, indications are ; stated to b© good. Prospectors declare that it is only a matter of time for enormous supplies to bo located. The Federal Government offers a reward of J 550.000 for the discovery of oil in payable quantities in Australia, and five claims are new under consideration. In several of the States this reward is to b© supplemented by the State Governments, the amount offered by New South Wales being £IO,OOO. The most sensational report that has been forthcoming is from the Fitzgerald River, near Bremer Bay, in Western Australia. It is claimed that oil sands have been reached at 29ft, and that, they are steadily

improving as the boro deepens The discoverer of the field, Mr Edward Perkins, has prospected the country for oil from Ravensthorp-o to Loeuwin for 18 years, and is confident that ho has the real thing at last. The field is on a plain eight miles across and .12 long. The cliff faces are several hundred feet high. Mr Peter Martin, who informed reporters who visited) the site that ho had Stuttgart University diplomas in Natural Science, is the field laboratory expert. He says that it will bo one of the biggest oil fields in the world, the surface shales alone yielding 198 gallons to the ton. He says also that he has found an economical process of extracting mineral oil from shale without distillation. Mr Richard Wilson, Government Field Geologist, is inspecting the field), and will take samp lis of the soil, oil sands, seepages, and rocks to Perth for analysis. At present he will not express any opinion on the field or the jirospects. An offer was recently received by the Federal authorities from an American firm to locate oil in New Guinea and Papua by the aid of a divining rod. This offer was not accepted, ns the Federal Ministry has exerts in those parts. i

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Of your correspondents to-day I prefer “ Bored Stiff” to “Cromwell” and “ Loyal Irishman.” Any man who signs himself “Cromwell” is nnfi-Catholic from the jump, and his statements, are. ipso facto. labelled “ prejudiced.” “ Loyal Irishman ” implies that those who do not so sign themselves when arguing this question are “disloyal.” Many of the “self deterrninationists ” fought in the -groat war or sent their sons to fight, and lost them. Prejudice helps to make Sinn Feiners. It is the hammer that clinches the rivets. Therefore, the more prejudice Bio tighter jhe rivets. Blood is thicker than* water, and it is a queer thing if one cannot sympathise with his family in trouble without being accused of disloyalty to his neighbours. Perhaps G. K. Chesterton. Professor Thomson, of Aberdeen, Jerome K. Jerome, and a whole lot more are by implication disloyal, because they show a little sympathy towards the Southern Irish. To treat the argument as “Bored Stiff” treats it, let us try to be humorous; Sez Dooley to Hennessy: “ Hennessy, didn’t President Wilson sa.y to Ireland, ‘ Come on now. y’ spalp-an and help us to win the war. and ye’ll get the same thratment, as all the other little fellows.’ ” “What thratment is that?” sez Hennessv? “Ye’ll get a dag and a brand now shillelagh,” sez Dooley. “Phwnt did Lloyd George say?” sez Hennessy. “ Beuor. ye will, eez he,” sez Dooley. “Well, why doesn’t he shlick to it?” “ Begor, Carson and Honor Law won’t let him, nor ‘ Cromwell ’ nor ‘ Loyal Irishman’ and all thim fellows in Dunedin.” “ Phwat place is’that?” sez Hennessy. “Divil n bit of me knows,” sez Doo'ey: “ somewhere near the Antarctic—a small place, but it r'ms the British Empire.” “ Shu re, I didn’t know that,” sez Hennessy. “It’s a fact, all the same” sez Dooley; “ and facts, as they sav there, arc duels that winna ding.” I am, etc.. Bored Suffer. Dunedin, September 12.