COMMONWEALTH NOTES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13433, 26 March 1907, Page 3

COMMONWEALTH NOTES.

(By FJf.) PETROLEUM INDUSTRY.

Apropos of this subject, I have some interesting information on the shale industry in New South Wales, which is closely associated with petroleum. The argest known tfields in the world are in \ T ew South Wales, and known as CaperLree and Wolgon Valley deposits. An English company has been formed, and A'ork 1 is progressing. Already £35,000 las been expended upon initial operations. OOverv v er 1000 hands are employed tt the present timo by the company. ihmit £10,000 has been spent in America for the most modern retorting machinery. Analysis of the seam gives L 21 .4 gallons crude oil to the ton, whilst n one instance it ran as high as 150 gallons. ,The Commonwealth consumes L.5,000,000 gallons annually of kerpsene, oind the s company expect to supply in the near future- 3,000,000 -annually, rhese facts point to / big industry being firmly established. There are other shale companies in New South Wales ivhose outputs are large, and their expo jt trpcle in ,shale. tfl N>w. Zealand alone is both large and increasing; about 100 tons going forward every neck, most of which is to Lyttelton. SHEJEP. The name of Sir Samuel MacCaughey is well known as the sheep king of Australia. Some imeresting details have been imparted by him lately to a Melbourne press man, showing the extent 3t his operations* the magnitude, of which wins admiration for the ability, j spirit and enteVprise of .one man. fU j lias 1,000,000 sheep,. which cover'graaing ground amounting Lo GOOO square miles. His working expenses aggregate tibout £300,000 a year. He f employ » 1000 hands. His average sheep paddocks are 40 square miles. lie buvr. stud stock largely. At one sale in Adelaide lately his bids during one day amounted to £6000. He is a great believer in irrigation, and has some of the biggest bores in Australia onr his property. They. average about 1000 ft. j deep in New South Wales, and 2000 ft. in Queensland. j They cost approximately £1 per foot to put down, but one in Queensland, 4000 ft. deep, cost £12*, 000. BUTTER. ' Speaking at the annual meeting of the Coastal Farmers' Co-operative Society lately, the manager had a wor.d to v say anfent New Zealand. He found to his own apparent satisfaction that, after all, his' Company's factories had paid the suppliers for the year an average of.9£d for butter against 10* d. lor butter fat by one of the leading New Zealand factories. This ho calculator is equal to $d per pound in favour of New South Wales. His object in drawing the comparisons was to play off his own bqt the results of his efforts in getting the Commonwealth authorities to back down on the compulsory grading question, which subject will engage my attention in the next notes. POLICE SUPERANNUATION FUND. New South Wales Police Fund gets a delightful stimulus every time a new Ministry coiges into power. Everyone knows the positive insolvency of the fund, and, being a semi-Government arfair, tho programme of every fresh Ministry places the subject at the head of the list for urgent consideration. But year in and year out and still nothing is done. The fact is it wants so much funds that no treasury can stand it. There are 2.342 members of the Police Force, of whom 28 are over 60 years of age. They have not been retired simply because the funds will not stand their pensions. Parliament votes annually £16,000 for payment of existing pensions and another 30 members on the list will go near doubling this amount. STRANGE SJJRIES OF COINCIDENCES. Many rare coincidences 4iave been reported from time to time, but it is safo to presume that there have been few stranger series in the career of two men engaged in the same work than, have ocourred in relation to two members oi the Methodist Conference now sitting in Svdnoy — Revs. W. H. Beale and J G. Morris Taylor. The series is roalb

when Rev. W. H. Bealo was appoint to the Armidale Circuit.. He w:;s l! <• in the 20th yoar of his ( muusir.v, »:• Roy. .t. G. M orris Taylor, when appoin ted to the same circuit, was also in liv 20th year. Each in his second year wa: appointed chairman of the district, an! each was removed to the Ryde Circur 1 in his 26th year. Key. W. H. Bealc was called' to the chair of the Confer ence in the 29th year of his .ministry, and his last year at Hyde, and Rev. Morris Taylor was likewise called in hi. 29th year of ministry, and last year at Ryde. To pursue tho coincidences stil 1 further, each delivered* his ordination charge from the same text from Timothy, and the coincidence is made stiP the more strange by the fact that eacl delivered the charge on the same date. Rev. W. H. Beale on March 8, 1901. and Rev. Morris Taylor on March8, 1907. Last; but. not least, each gentleman is the father of five children — two girls and three boys.