MINERAL OILS.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 August 1921, Page 3

MINERAL OILS.

AN INTERESTING ADDRESS NELSON, Aug. 19 Professor T. 11. Easterfield, Director of the Caw thorn Institute, delivered an interesting lecture on mineral oils at a meeting of the scientific branch of tue Nelson Institute. New Zealand brown coals, he said, contained very little soluble bitumen. Oil shales had been found at Orepuki, and other places in Southland, also in South Canterbury. Large works were erected in 1899 at Orepuki, the shale being distilled in large Scottish retorts. The works, which ran for only a few years, received the Government subsidy offered for t'he first quarter of a million gallons of oil produced in New Zealand. They produced paraffin wax, lubricating oil, burning oil, light naphtha and sulphate of ammonia. The amount of sulphur in the shales was a great drawback, and the expenses of mining shale i vas certainly a contributing cause to the stoppage of operations. Natural petroleum had been found at New Plymouth, Gisborne, Kotuku (near Brunner, and more recently at Maruia, Nelson. In other localities seepages of oil had been observed. Indications of oil •had also been found in the Dannevirke district. Large volumes of inflammable gas had issued from some of the bores, but no considerable quantity of oil. The oils from these different districts differed considerably in appearance and in the proportion of their constituents. Taranaki oil was semi-solid grease, at ordinary temperature, owing to the high content of paraffin wax. Kotuku oil was very liquid at ordinary temperature, and Maruia oil was comparatively viscous. The only one of these centres which at any tint* had shown promise of becoming an important source of oil was New Plymouth. Over two million gallons had been obtained there, of which more than a million gallons was won by Taranaki Oil Wells Ltd., whose expenditure, including liabilities exceeded £140,000. Tt really looked in 1906 as if this company was going to have a prosperous time. If it had merely sold its crude oil to the Admiralty it could almost certainly lmvo kept upon its legs, but when the time came for boring new wells it was found it had spent its capital. Companies had operated in, this area and their expenditure had approached £300,000, but none of the companies "ivas now putting oil on the market. Taranaki oil was very interesting from a chemical point of view, being remarkably rich in oils belonging to the benzol series, a series which was but poorly represented in Pennsylvanian oils. The presence of benzols caused the kerosene, which otherwise was of beautiful quality, to smoke when burned i in ordinary American kerosene lamps,! though no doubt slight modifications of the burners or lamp glasses would satisfactorily meet this trouble. Cycloparaffins which were also present in large quantities in Russian petroleum, were well represented in that obtained in Taranaki. tyy modern processes it would h e possible to extract benzol, taluol and xylol from Taranaki oils. Toluol could be used for making TNT explosive and crude xyol was said to be an excellent insecticide.