PETROLEUM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4801, 11 August 1876, Page 2

PETROLEUM.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sib, —This source of so much natural wealth and national prosperity to America, has wholly been neglected by capitalists in this colony although it is a well known fact that the North Island abounds in oil, proved by an American refiner of experience to be equal, if not superior, to the best oils of America. On the east coast of the North Island there is an oil line extending from Poverty Bay to the East Cape (a distance of 100 miles), and' longer than any oil line yet found in America, and all that has been done to develop this vast field has been done by a local company at Poverty Bay, whose capital has all been spent in preliminary road-making, building, procuring plant, and sinking a shaft about 100 ft., with the view of finding rock, as the American drills will only bore in that material. This shaft caved in before reaching the rock, and was abandoned, as the company feared the expense of reclaiming it, their purse by this time having shown symptoms of caving in. After this another faint attempt was made to sink another shaft ; but in this case the purse, and not the shaft, gave way. The company has on the ground a plant, after the most approved American fashion, and all that is now wanted is about 200 ft, of 6-iu. soil pipes, the want of which was the main cause of failure ; and even this might not be required now, as good boring rook, with oil running out of it, has been found. The little this company has done proves conclusively that there is oil in abundance. The first shaft soon after caving in had about Bft, of pure oil in it, which the workmen used to bucket out and bum in a fryingpan for fuel, as they said it required no splitting or blowing. The oil is of a pale wine color, and as fluid as lamp oil. In America oil in large quantities is never until the sandstone reck is pierced, nor can we expect it here until the same matrix is reached. I don’t know of any undertaking that promises so rich a harvest for capital as this does. The Poverty Bay Company, I believe, would hand over their plant and lease of over 6000 acres to any persons or company with sufficient capital to carry on the work. Of course, we often hear the cry of interested parties (importers), who say that it would not pay to work it if found. In reply, I would sah it pays in Sydney to manufacture oil from shale, and in Scotland from a similar substance, that cost more to raise in the lump than it costs to raise and distill petroleum into lamp oil. And further, I have seen a detailed estimate, by the best authority in the colony, clearly showing that if found in moderate quantities the cost of producing, in tins on the wharf at Gisborne, would be 9d. a gallon, or 6d. in barrels. It will be seen that at the present market rates there is a sufficient margin of profit to satisfy most people. I believe that £2OOO or £3OOO would be ample to test the company’s ground to a successful issue. It is possible that, here we have an undeveloped wealth that may some day eclipse our gold and wool industries put together, and go farther to pay off our national debt than the conservation of our forests and swamps, of which we heard so much of late.—l am, &c., Struck Ile.