BELEAGUERED "BOOM CITY."

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13299, 7 February 1914, Page 10

BELEAGUERED " BOOM CITY."

•m* LORD. COWDRAY'S WORK AT TAMPICO. (By IL Hamilton -Fyfe.) TAMPICO, Dec. 1. Tampico is Mexico's "boom city." It has "boomed" even through the civil war, which - seems as great a. miracle as if a tree should put forth leaf and blossom m a season of frost and snow. Yet if a tree Avere warmly rooteel and fed below ground by a nourishing stream of fertiliser, even that miracle might be seen. So it' is Avith Tampico. The stream that feeds it is a torrent of oil. Its roots arc set deep m the development vof the petroleum industry. . The capital and the port of what is believed to he the Avorld's greatest oilfield, ii owes its prosperity and its rich prospects to. an Englishman, to the. Englishman who has done so much else m and for Mexico, I- mean- Lord Cowdrav. THE SEARCH - FOR. OIL-WELLS. .For years (he Avas then Sir Wectman Pearson), he poured but money trying tc find oil-wells along the Gulf Coast between Tampico and Tuxpam. It taxed his patience and it taxed, his purse. Only a very rich and very determined prospector could have seen the search through. Even after he had been rewarded by striking a "gusher," Avhich ■gave ..a million barrels a month, his hopes ' were, dashed again. The oil, Avhich mysterious forces far below the surface flung upAvards m a huge fountain, caught, alight and burned it-sell out. A fortune flamed aAvay m that column of smoke and fire- Once, again Lord Cowdray proved the truth of the homely- proverb. "It's dogged as does it." Undismayed, he kept his team oi geologists and . borSrs at work, and soon they found another. -gusher" almost as prolific as the first. For twe years this has been yielding BOO,OOC barrels a month, Avhich means roughlj £900.000 a year. Besides this the Mexican .Eagle Company has several othei Avells of smaller capacity, and number* of , other companies are at work alsc draAvingv up' tlie hidden riches of the earth to supply the ever-increasing de mand for oil to drive ships, locomotives all- kinds of engines, the all-conquerin< motor, car. , This is the Oil Age. .The world can not get enough of this valuable fue Avhich has lain hid through all the ages until 'now. In every likely region hole! are beinrr punched.'thvough the earth'! surface. in the hope to find it. Up tc fiow the United States produces more oil than any other country. Russia comes second. When the Mexican oil fields are yielding to their full extent they, will, ' it is believed, take Russia's place. Then Tampico will be a flourish ing city,, one of the great oil ports of the world. .".'. SMALL BEGINNINGS. A- few years back it was a small town unimportant, unheard of. It did ay smal trade m fruit: the A'alley m which it lies is Avcll Avatered and fertile. But it was just a hot, dusty, _loAv-coaeh o: a 'place ; and so, for all that Mexican: did- or tried to do. it would have remain cd. British and American enterprise \ haA'o already transformed it. ..- Tlie streets, .where.. formerly a stranger- wai a curiosity, are bustling and thronged White women -dnd children, the Aromer nearly all bare-headed, stroll up anc down them quite at home. White mer m", Avhite clothes (even m mid-winter pass to and from their offices. . Eriglisl and German are heard at every turn Tall, office buildings are dwarfing the squat houses. A big hotel is a-buiid ing. Land is going up m price. Specu lators are spying it out and mapping the probable directions m Avhich the city will groAv. Plans are heing lak for big stores to open. All the element; of a "boom" are here. Towards the sea, some few miles dowr the- river,' stretch miles of railway sid ings and quays. • On the hills there. ha: broken out an eruption of oil tanks looking like gigantic mushrooms. Ir the/ river are many vessels, greedy foi oil> oil,' oil.Down the coast a long way lies Tux pam t/Tucepam),. also up a river, a towi built; not upon? seven hills like Rome but m and out of seven hills, each o "them flat-topped ; a sea of houses wash ing around tlieir bases without throw ing. up any spray; Here is a riche: valley than that of the Panuco rivei on which Tampico lies, and pipe-linei bring oil to Tuxpam as well as to it: elder and bigger sister. They evei carry it a .mile out to sea, where it cai be pumped swaight into tank-ships a the rate of 2500 barrels an hour. Tux pam has lived through anxious days o late. The rebels have lon, been threat ening to attack the oil district. Thej are anxious to collect the tax Avhich ii imposed , upon every barrel of oil pro ducedi They -Avould like also to "bor row," as. they -playfully, call it, from th< oil companies; Their commander pro posed that the - Eagle Company atom should 'pay him £10,000 and contributi £0500 a month to the insurgent cam paign fund J '>'•'■ DAILY ANXIETY IN TAMPICO. There has already been fighting roune Tuxpam. The -foreign Avoroen and ' -chil dren were all 1 packed into a barge 'the other day and sent down the river t( an American warship. And every morn ing -Tampico hears that the rebel armj is nearer, nearer. Like almost al foreigners m Mexico, these kindly, hos pitable_ Tampico oil folic rise up and lie down m anxiety, not knowing Avhat i day may bring forth.