OUR SHALE DEPOSITS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160712, 27 July 1920, Page 4

OUR SHALE DEPOSITS.

Were New Zealand blessed with Governments possessing the initiative of an oyster or the energy of a snail, the matter of oil supplies would long ago have been saved from drifting into a position , which is bad enough as it is, without the new prospect of it becoming worse. If the various causes, genuine or sham, which prevent development and hold up shipping, render the import of oil from Borneo or elsewhere out of the question, there yet remains the possibility of furthering an oil industry in New Zealand itself. Successive Governments have done practically nothing towards developing the oil measures in Taranaki. They may claim some excuse for this, inasmuch as geologists are not agreed upon the permanence of the Taranaki oil beds, and certainly the few wells so far running have not succeeded in making fortunes for their owners. But in the western district of Southland there are mountains of shale, enormous masses that could not be worked out in hundreds of years. Shale is impregnated with high-quality oil which gives us practically all the products which . free petroleum gives. If the proper plant were erected in Southland for the treatment of the shale all fear of an oil famine in New Zealand would be averted. , instead of letting the industry become a private monopoly it should be made a national monopoly, and under the control of business men and workers combined, it ■would be a good commercial proposition for:;the country, as well as the saviour of numerous industries which depend upon oil for motive power. Oil driven engines have become so much a feature of the times that the failure of oil supplies will spell disaster to thousands. This factor alone should, induce the Government to develop the shale deposits in Southland, and if it did no more than help private enterprise to operate them, even that would be betieillJxaaiaothing.