QUEST FOR OIL

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 174, 10 August 1937, Page 6

QUEST FOR OIL

-Press . Association.)

Thousands Being Spent in Papua LARGE STAFF ENGAGED

(By Telegraph-

AUCKLAND, Last Night. "If there is a possibility of oil being found ' in large quantities in Papua, the staff of prospeetors now drilling there will get it. " This was the' opinion expressed by Mr. Edward S. Moss, a Wellington business man, while speaking of a visit to Port Moresby, when iie returned by the steamer Van Eees after a round 'trip to the Dutch East Indies. "Enormous capital has been rais«d, and money is being spent like water to aseertain whether the early indications of oil deposits will yield profitable supplies," continued Mr. Moss. "There are rock formations similar to that found in the oilfields of Borneo, and fpr some months a large staff of white prospeetors has been engaged along the Fly Eiver in drilling operations With the most modern plant." The country that was being worked was flat and densely covered with bush, being accessible pnly from the water, said Mr. Moss. The state of the low undrained land made it a breedmg ground for tropical diseases, and the prospeetors had been inoculat'ed' against every weLUknown complaint. The danger from fly bites was ever present.