Page 1 Advertisements Column 4

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 59, 7 June 1873, Page 1 (Supplement)

springs, it must necessarily be worth the while of capitalists in New Zealand to invest a comparatively small sum of money for the purpose of testing these springs where the indications are as great or greater than, as it can be proved, ever manifested themselves in Pennsylvania, or other oil-bearing districts in America. The oil exudes not only in one spot but is apparent in some forty or fifty of what are termed “ oil springs,” the whole being within a radius of two square miles. It is calculated that, say, £5,000 will be amply sufficient for tiie purpose of purchasing bonng machinery, steam engine, and paying all labor and other expenses required for testing the springs. So soon as it appears that oil is in payable quantities; it will be necessary to call up the whole of the Company’s capital for the purpose of working the springs, erecting refining houses, and laying tramways to convey the rectified oil to the shipping port at Poverty Bay. Should the Company fail to find payable oil; the loss on each individual share will be very small. The immense advantages bn the enterprise (if successful) are incalculable. The demand for the oil, it is almost unnecessary to state, is unlimited and the price obtained always remunerative. As an investment nothing has hitherto been submitted to the public which offers such unexceptionable security and such enormous profits, oil being obtained in moderate quantities.

Extract from the Colonial Museum and Laboratury Reports, 1866-7, p. 20. 11. Poverty Bay Petroleum. “ The samples of oil forwarded cannot be completely analyzed until some apparatus arrives from Dunedin to replace that formerly used in the Laboratory which lias been broken. “ In the meantime the following data are sufficient to indicate the quality of the oil which is very much superior to that obtained at Taranaki. “ Sample 1. (in large black bottle) was only found to contain a small quantity of semi-solid bitumen, but of which there was too small a quantity for examination. “ Sample 2. (in square bottle) was nearly pure oil very similar, but slightly superior, to a sample previously examined from the East Coast; exact locality not communicated. “ Sample 3. (in white bottle) contained A mechanical admixture of water with oil which, on separation, proved to be of the same description as number 2. “ The following is a note of the specific gravities and boiling points of all the samples of petroleum yet examined : — Specific Vapour Oils gravity in flames Boil deg. Fah. deg. Fah. Sample No. 2. . -864 210 300 „ No. 3. (after separation) : 867 210 300 Oil from East Coast ‘873 230 290 „ Taranaki -962 260 340 “ The superiority of the first three samples is obvious. They will probably yield 50 to 60 per cent., of Kerosine on distillation, but further experiments are necessaiy on this point. “James Hector, Geological Survey Office, Director?* Wellington, 25th July, 1866. Extract from letter of London Times special correspondent. “ The cost of the -machinery for boring and pumping is somewhat heavy if the endeavor to strike oil fails; but it dwindles to a mere nothing in comparison with the profits that accrue to the successful oil-digger. One thousand pounds will cover the expense of sinking a well and purchasing the requisite machinery ; and while all may be incurredfor nought, the £l,OOO may realize, and has in many instances realized, £5,000 within five weeks from oil being struck. It is gambling, risking £l,OOO for the chance of AoZf a million! ! There are many blanks but there are also many prizes. A company in Philadelphia sunk for oil at the cost of less than £2,000. They struck a flowing well which they sold in a week to another company for £250,000 receiving besides, as a royalty, half the oil it yielded which has since brought them in their thousand dollars (£200) a day.” * * a “Hundreds of similar instances have occurred. Poor farmers who could hardly get a living from their land have found oil beneath the surface of the soil, and have found themselves in a few weeks men of wealth. Others have sold their land for a mere trifle to speculators who have become millionaires through the purchase.”

REPORT ON THE PETROLEUM SPRINGS. I Havb examined the Oil Springs which are found in the District of Poverty Bay, situated about twenty-five miles N.E. of Gisborne. The springs proposed to be worked are six or seven in number, and from twenty to thirty yards apart, on the top of an derated plateau covered with dense fern which would nave made it a difficult matter to find the locality but for the strong smell of oil which indicates the presence of the springs. The country here veiy much resembles Pithole, in the oil regions of Pennsylvania ; and the springs are even more promising than those which led to the discovery of that celebrated district where the wells were found to yield as much as 4,000 bands a day. From my experience in Pennsylvania I have no hesitation in saying that if such indications were found in any new locality there, there would be several thousand men busy boring within a month of such discovery. The following is an estimate of probable cost of boringr— Steam engine, boring tools, derrick, tuba, oil pump complete, at the springs, £l,lOO. Labor, each hole 600 feet deep, £l5O. Cost refining the oil, 3d a gallon. A. YOUNG BOSS.