POVERTY BAY PETROLEUM AND KEROSENE COMPANY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 206, 19 September 1874, Page 2

POVERTY BAY PETROLEUM AND KEROSENE COMPANY.

(Limited.)

On Wednesday last, at a meeting of the Directors of this Company, it was resolved to place an additional 5iX) shares in the market at once, at a premium of 10s per share ; £1 to be paid on application, and 30s on allotment.

A resolution was also passed that another call should be made of 5s per share, payable on or before the 7th October proximo.

The report of the Manager (Mr. W. W. Parsons) was laid before the Board, and adopted unanimously, after an interesting discussion to which it had given rise.

To the Directors of the Poverty/ Bay Kerosene and Petroleum. Company.

Gentlemen, —In accordance with your request, I beg to lay before you the following preliminary report:— On Friday, the litli inst., I arrived on the ground, in company with your Chairman. Air. Graham, and on Saturday made an inspection of the ground, the springs, machinery, and plant of the Company. My short slay in the locality necessarily caused my inspection to be but a cursory one. but I am happy to state tiiat there is every indication of payable oil on the property. The general aspect of the country leads me to believe that the bed rock, whence the oil flows, lies at no very great, depth, say within five hundred feet from the surface, whilst lhe copious filtrations everywhere visible, warrant me in predicting that the oil is extremely plentiful. From the sample of crude oil placed before me, I consider it equal to the Pennsylvanian oil, and that it will yield fully as large a per centage of kerosene, viz., from seventy to eighty per cem. lhe cost of refining will probably be on a similar scale to the Pennsylvanian rate, but from my limited knowledge of the loeali’y and the general surroundings, I am not prepared in this report to enter into details. I may, however, stale from an experience of i welve years in oil boring and refining, that with a 30-barrel well, which I consider small, we shall be able to pay handsome dividends. Duubts have been expressed in my

hearing, that you will be unable to produce refined oil as cheaply as in America ; these may at once be dismissed. Wages here are lower than at the oil region of Pennsylvania, the country through which you would bring the oil, either bj r tramway or pipe, offers every facility, and I have no hesitation in saying that there is no reason why it should not be sold in a refined state at the port of Gisborne, as eheapfly as it is sold in the United States. I may state that I have been shown a calculation, which was published in the Poverty Bay Herald of the 2Gth January, 1874, as to the probable cost per gallon, and I consider the calculation to be rather over than under the amount.

I feel assured that you will realise the fact, that having been in the district but a few days, and from mj r superficial examination of the ground, this report could furnish but little beyond general facts, and that any attempt on my part to go into minute details would be superfluous. I trust, however, that I may be permitted to inform you that the work of finding the oil may possibly occupy considerable time, and although during the whole course of my experience, I have -never found such indications as those furnished by your Company’s ground prove deceptive, I may not be able to discover the oil at once. This may be attributed to the fact, that the bed rock (the source of the oil), is extremely varied in width, sometimes only a few rods, in other places, over a mile —from all I know to the contrary, the rock may be extremely narrow throughout, and I therefore deem it my duty, both to the Company, and to myself, to inform you before commencing, that it is impossible for me to state how long it may be before oil is struck in payable quantities, but I have no doubt as to the ultimate result. The boring apparatus, and the whole of the plant appears to be in every way suitable, and when a few additional timbers have been procured, I am ready to commence operations. I am, Gentlemen, Your obedient servant, AV. W. Parsons.