IN THE LAND OF OIL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 28, 26 September 1912, Page 7

IN THE LAND OF OIL.

MR. W. McLEAN AT LOS ANGELES.

Mr W. McLean, of Wellington, who is interested in -some of the Taranald petroleum, wells, went, over, to California 'some. .weeks ago to inspect the oilfields in the south round Los Angeles and inquire into the latest machinery and methods for.potrolGjkimexploration work and oil-boring. From Los Angeles lie writes to a friend in Wellington of some of his experiences and impressions( says the .Post). ,'He notes the practical suparsession' of coal, which is dear, by oil, which is cheap. The locomotives all use oilj which is found to give much greater economy. ! Huge oil trains are a feature on the Californian railways. The centre of the oil district is LO3 Angeles, in the far south, which lias made extraordinary progress in recent With its surrounding suburbs, it has a population of over half a million, and so confident is it of the future that it is. carrying to completion the greatest water supply scheme in the world. The city is situated in what is practically an arid region, and td get water its enterprising citizens have gone over two hundred miles away into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and have there dammed up a reservoir for the use of the city. The water is brought by an aqueduct over two hundred miles long, up hill and down dale and across the rainless Morgrave Desert. The extraordinary wealth of the city is shown, according to Mr McLean, in its hosts of motor cars, motor cycles and electric cars. The cars are numbered up to 77,639, but Mr McLean says he will make more exact inquiries into this matter. The climate of Los Angeles is warm but beautifully clear, and all round it are thousands of acres of gardens and orchards, which flourish under irrigation. There is another side to it. "It appears to me," says Mr McLean, "that the bounty of Nature to this district is unlimited, but the privileges of the people are few. The cost of living is very high, what with rents, travelling, and tipping. The method of 'tipping' seems to me to have -attained a scientific degree of barefaced legal imposition. I feel safe in saying that one could live comfortably in New Zealand on the tips the traveller has to pay in this country. Land for building purposes appears excessively high, running from £SOO to £ldCo an acre at distances seven, eight, or nine miles from the city. The valuation for city purposes has increased by 1,000,000 dollars; the building permits for June came to over 3,000,000."