OIL FUEL

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 41, 12 November 1919, Page 3

OIL FUEL

QUESTION OF RESERVOIRS

PROBABLE LOCATION IN EVANS BAY

All authorities appear to agree that the standard fuel of the future is crude nil. Tho City Engineer (Mr. W. 11. Morton) was very much inipresseo with the oil-burning furnaces he saw in operation in the United States, and his letters reflect his conviction that oil is the fuel of the future, and providing accommodation in the shape- of reservoirs near the waterfront for its reception is supplied, he evidently sees no valid reason whv the Wellington City Corporation should not use oil for its power-house furnaces. Mr. Morton apparently is of tho opinion that even if oil were dearer than coal—and, seeing that it would have to come from San Francisco or Los Angeles, that would probably lie the case—it would be the more economical fuel in the long run, as the saving in labour in tho power-houses woulo be considerable. In viow of the letters of My. Morton and the discussion which recentlv took place in the City Council on the subject, an inquiry was made yesterday as to whether anything definite had been decided upon regarding provision of oil reservoirs on the Wellington waterfront. In the original plans of the Wellington Harbour Board for the reclamation of Kaiwarra bight, preparedsome eighteen months ago by Mr. .lames Marchbanks (the board's engineer), provision was maoe for a site for an oil reservoir, but later counsels advised the authorities that the land to be reclaimCD at Thorndon would be too valuable for such a purpose, and a secondary reason was that the land proposed to bo so reclaimed would be required for railway mimeses. The board then decided that it would be advisable to seek nnother site for the purpose mentioned, and it was decided that when the time came it would be advisable to reclaim part of the harbour between Point .Tcmingham and the Patent Slip where there is ample depth of water for tho big oil tank steamers to berth, whilst tho reservoir would then bo remote from close settlement or big business blocks. As to the proposed reclamation, which takes in some sixty acres of tho Kaiwarra bight, a oeadlock appears to exist at present. Seen yesterday by a Dominion reporter, the chairman of the board stated, that when, tho project was first outlined to reclaim some sixty acres, the Riiilwnv Department was of tho opinion that a modified scheme, involving the reclamation of about half the original area, would suit all parties, but later,'when the General Manager (Mr. E. IT. Hiley) went into the matter, ho saw that the larger scheme would be the better one. Consultations were held between the engineers of the Harbour Board, the Hailway Department, and the City Corporation, but the outcome of those conferences, it was gathered, was that the Railway Department would require the land so reclaimed, with tho exception of a strip 20Oft. in width along tho waterfront, which was the reverse of encouraging to the other bodies interested. There the matter rested. Nothing furIher had been done, and the board's dredge, which would be requireo: to do the work of reclaiming—as was done at Waterloo Quay—was lying idle. Reservoir accommodation for oil would, sooner or later, have to be provided, and the looation would he at the Evans Bay site mentioned above.

CONVERTED TO OIL FUEL TUG SHIPPING COMPANIES ALTERING THEIR STEAMBBS. fficc. November 11, 7.40 p.m.) New York, November 8. It is reported that several of the. larger steamship companies plan to convert their vessels into oil burners in order to avert fuel difficulties as the result of the coal shortages. Estimated conversion will affect 1750 vessels, and save 210 millions tons of coal annually—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn,