The Daily News WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1527. PROSPECTING FOR OIL.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 October 1927, Page 6

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1527. PROSPECTING FOR OIL.

There does not seem very much that is new in the Bill introduced in'the House of Representatives on Monday last “to encourage the production of petroleum from Crown and other lands.” It appears to be chiefly an extension and clarifying of the maehinery elauses of the Mining Act, and so far as it simplifies procedure will probably be welcomed by those who anticipate prospecting for oil. Certainly the powers conferred upon the Minister under the proposed Bill are very wide. If it becomes law, prospecting for petroleum will become illegal unless a warrant or license to do so lias been secured from the Minister. Power is also given to declare any lands, Crown or private, as areas in which oil prospecting may be carried out.' Objections to such proclamation are to be made before a Magistrate, but the decision is still left in the hands of the Minister. Applicants for warrants to prospect will be required to deposit a sum, to be fixed by the Minister, or to enter into a bond as security that they will comply with the conditions of the warrant. Such deposits may be used by the Minister to restore or protect property injuriously affected by any failure to carry out the conditions under which prospecting has been permitted. Boring plant must be installed within three months of the granting of a warrant to prospect and boring must be continued until the Minister is satisfied that a well is unsuccessful. A royalty equal to 10 per cent, of the value of the crude petroleum won must be paid to the Mines Department, but of this not more than 10 per cent, will be paid to the State, the balance going to the owners of the land upon which a well is sunk. Oil prospecting is admittedly scientific work which makes adequate finance a necessity, and the new proposals seem only in keeping with the position. There may be some exception taken to the proposal to make the Minister’s consent necessary before the transfer of a license is permissible, but the reasons for this apparently unnecessary interference in private trading may become more apparent when the Bill is further considered. It seems an attempt to assist the genuine well-equipped prospector, and to protect the owners of oil-bearing lands. It should also make it less easy for the mere speculator to exploit the public under the guise of prospecting while doing little, if any, real work in this direction. The new provisions may have the effect of clearing up the difficulties in the way of a strong prospecting company coming to the Dominion and engaging in prospecting in a comprehensive way. If this is the ease, we may expect the likely lands of the Dominion to be thoroughly tested for petroleum in the near future.