OIL IN TARANAKI.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 September 1924, Page 6

OIL IN TARANAKI.

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL IN IT. BIG DEVELOPMENT EXPECTED. THE COMPANY'S POLICY. Once again efforts to thoroughly try out the oil deposits in Taranaki are about to be undertaken, but this time with more than ordinary care and the application of the latest American methods of prospecting. Machinery sufficient for putting down and exhaustively testing wells to be sunk near Inglewood is due to arrive here at the end of October next. The company interested in this latest venture is the Taranaki Oil Fields, Ltd., a Melbourne concern, in which the Union S-team Ship Company holds an interest as underwriters. It is estimated that by January or February next it should be ascertained beyond all doubt whether oil exists in commercial quantities in the area selected by Dr. Clapp, the eminent American authority of petroleum deposits. He was the adviser called in by the United States Government to settle matters connected with differences of expert opinion of the value of the Teapot Dome fields. These fields were recently made notorious by certain disclosures that had nothing to do with their value in themselves.

Mr. Colin Fraser, fiornnerly of the New Zealand Government Geological Survey, is in Wellington, as one of a party of representatives of the company who interviewed the Minister for Mines on the work proposed to bp undertaken at the Tarata field, near Inglewood. That interview was private. Mr. Fraser .is one of the directors of the company which has the Broken Hill group behind it. In conversation with a representative of The Post, Mr. Fraser said the history of the Taranaki oilfields and the work that had been done there in the past was quite well known in Australia; but those intimatedly connected with the Taranaki Oil Fields, Ltd., were very much impressed by Dr. Clapp’s report and there was no difficulty at all in raising the money required for the immediate purpose of testing the Tarata area of 8000 acres. The nominal capital of the compajiy is £500,000, but a subscription of but £1'50,000 was called for, and of this the underwriters took up one-half, viz., £75,000. The other £75,000 was offered to the public, and was oversubscribed by 70 per cent, in twenty-four hours. 'Dr. Clapp, he said, had been over thousands of ascres ir Australia in which oil was supposed to exist; in fact, over most of the reputed shows, but without any economic result. It was very different in Taranaki. *There he obtained most promising results. He saw nothing in Australia comparable to what he saw in Taranaki.

The new company, on the recommendation of Dr. Clapp, had secured the services of Mr. Marquardt as field geologist. Mr. Fraser said the mission of the representatives of the company to Wellington was to impress upon the Government the fact that at last the Taranaki oilfields were to have a real test by the application of ample money and highly expert men and equipment. The Government had been most sympathetic, and he thought was impressed by what had begn said. The Minister and chief officers of the department concerned had been most sympathetic and helpful.