SEARCH FOR OIL

Hokitika Guardian, 5 September 1929, Page 2

SEARCH FOR OIL

TAUMARUNUI DISTRICT. ANALYSIS GIVES NEGATIVE. RESULTS. WELLINGTON, Sept. 2.. During the past few months a good deal olf interest has been displayed in the edistrict adjacent to the town of Taumarunui in consequence of its having been reported that there are surface indications pointing to the probability of the country being oil-bearing. iug. . Some of those who claim to have carried out prospecting operations in the locality and to have discovered evidences of mineral oil approached the Minister of Mines, the Hon. W. A Veitch, with a request that one of the Department’s inspectors should visit the districts. , Arrangements were made accordingly and inspector torwarded with his report a sample of brine (from one of the springs, a sample of clay, and a sample of one of the harder bands in the hock'■exposures in the river bank. • These samples wei e forwarded to the Dominion Laboratory for examination, and the acting-Domin-ion Analyst has now advised that the sample of brine, which he describes as water with a slight odour of kerosene, was examined carefully for petroleum, but no trace thereof was detected, likewise no tracd of petroleum was found in the sample of clay he examined. The piece of rock was examined by the Acting-Director of Geological Survey, who qd vised that the sample is calcareoiis mudstone, a consolidated beach mud. It lacks a petroliferous odour and the “water test” gives negative results. Several samples were received from one who had been prospecting in the Taumarunui district, said the Minister, and these were! also carefully examined for petroleum by the Acting-Domin-