OIL DISTILLATION

Hokitika Guardian, 13 July 1920, Page 3

OIL DISTILLATION

I A NORTHERN ENTERPRISE. AUCKLAND, July 5.' Mr G. lii. Allerton, managing direetor of t.lio I’arengn Kauri Mills, Ltd., left by last night’s express for Wellington, and intends, while at the capital, to discover whether the Government is going to offer any assistance to encourage the development of the oil industry by distillation, either by way of bonus for oil produced, or by a vote to assist in research work. The Parenga Company has just completed a. small: refining jpla.nt which starts work next week. This is only on a laboratory scale, hut il will give the exact percentage of fractious of different, oils contained in the crude oil now coming over from the oil works at Rodhill. Recently some English oil experts were here, and were so impressed with the possibilities of these fields that they entered into arrangements with the Parenga Company to float a strong subsidiary company in London to work part of the company’s property on a. share basis. The proposal is to erect a'plant costing £IOO,OOO which would lie capable of turning out by distillation four hundred barrels of oil a day. The visitors asked what the Government was doing to assist the. industry, and when told that the Government had absolutely do no nothing in the matter, they said it. seemed incredible, as tile British Government set up one of the most exnort commissions, including all the leading mining engineers, chemists, and scientists, to thoroughly investigate the matter of producing oils by distillation and resulting from the inquiry large experimental works have been erected to fry out, all the different methods of distillation. These works are costing £ 1 (TO,OOO. The Parenga. Company which js the pioneer of this oil industry, has erected works costing some £15,000, and is now getting out the oil, but; so far, the Government have stood coldly on one side, and declined to reive any *kind of encouragement. Mr Young, the member for "Waikato is fully informed on this subject, having made several visits of inspection to the fields, and will nrobably bring the matter before Parliament. The Government own a hundred acres of this type of land for every one owned privately, and the development of the oil industry means an enormous thing to the Dominion