A TRIP TO THE OIL SPRINGS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 121, 13 January 1874, Page 2

A TRIP TO THE OIL SPRINGS.

The P. B. Herald of the sth instant publishes a very interesting account from a special correspondent, of a recenttrip undertaken by the Directors of the Petroleum Company and others, to the Oil Springs, which we would willingly have transfered to our columns did space permit. The following extracts from it will, we trust, convince those whose scepticism has hitherto kept them aloof from a practical participation in the project, that there is something more reliable than “ the baseless fabric of a vision, on which the shareholders depend, in the spirited action they are taking towards solving a problem whose wealth is truly described as being “ beyond the dreams of avarice.” There are about half-a-dozen of them in all, probably more. We came upon one or two, indeed, in our explorations. T i lC r n ° lle ° f OU1 ‘ part - v llad seeu before' All lie in a line running about due north and south, and all present a similar appearance, being patches of barren ground with water holes in the centre, covered with red oily scum, and having bubbles continually rising to the surface. About a hundred yards, however, from ihe saddle at the summit of the valley is one where the oil is to be found in much greater abundance than in any of the others, and which merits a separate notice. At it, as at the others, there are two or three of the holes covered with red scum. I nder an overhanging bank, however, and thus shaded from the sun. was to be seen a hole completely filled with a dark green liquid, which was continually welling up from the interior of the earth. This dark green liquid, we found, was the oil itself; and in this spring one cannot help asking —have we not what is in the truest sense of the word a flowing well ?” True, it did not spout out in a column, “ a foot in diameter,” still it did in a steady and continuous stream. Here we proceeded to fill the bottles which we had brought with us for the purpose —they having served incidentally another useful and agreeable purpose as well —taking up the oil from the spring in pannikins. It seemed hardly worth while bringing the oil down to Gisborne, as there has been any quantity of it brought down already.

However, in view of the incredulity of colonial mankind, I thought it would be as well to have a bottle that I could swear to from personal observation, so I loaded myself with one, and behold is it not to be seen on a shelf in the editorial sanctum sanctorum of the P. B. Herald office to this day?”

“As to the nature and value of the “ surface indications,” an opinion on such a point from one who, like myself, has neither scientific knowledge nor practical experience bearing on the question to guide him is really worth so little tliat it is perhaps as well to reserve it. There are, however, in the present case, facts which seem to tell their own tale in such a manner that it is hardly possible to mistake their significance. There is, in the first place, the fact of the springs being found at au elevation of about a thousand feet above the level of the sea. This makes it manifest that we have in them the true source of the petroleum, not a mere chance exudation. The extent of the line, too, along which they lie scattered here and there, seems to place it beyond doubt that the vein, if not an inexhaustible one, is, at any rate, one which it will take years to exhaust, and the evidence in favor of this conclusion is strengthened by the fact of other veins being known to exist in the neighborhood, and, indeed, all along the East Coast from Hawke's Bay to the Bay of Plenty. The whole district, in short, appears to be a rich oil-bearing one. It is, moreover, I should say, little short of certain t hat the oil when tapped will come up in an abundantand spontaneous stream, aud will require no pumping. If, as it seems, the reservoir, extends up to the summit of the hill, the law of gravitation alone will surely secure a copious and rapid outflow from any boring which touches it lower down.”