PETROLEUM.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12936, 29 November 1909, Page 4

PETROLEUM.

The London journal, the Financier, draws attention to the oil field.-, of New Zealand, and in anticipating further developments, says that the matter "will Ik- very keenly watched by those interested in the oil trade the world over." No doubt will bv> felt upon the latter point. And one of those who will watch tne matter with all the keenness it can muster will be the Standard Oil Trust. It has already such a grip upon New Zealand that it is not likely it will watch the advent of a local rival with an unruffled calm. It will try one of two methods to kill the New Zealand industry. If it cannot buy it out it will squeeze it out. And if allowed to be unhampered in cither of these processes it may fairly be taken for granted that the Standard Oil Trust will achieve a certain measure of success. Which would be bad for a desirable New Zealand industry, and bad for New Zealand too. It ib understood that Government is watching the matter, and we hope that, if the New Zealand industry succeeds, adequate protection will follow the watching. But to be adequate the protection must be something more than mere penalising. It must be of such a nature as to impose a wall which it would be hopeless even for the Standard octopus to attempt to climb over.