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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 929, 26 March 1881, Page 4

It is to be hoped that the sensible and temperate course adopted by the meeting of shareholders of the South Pacific Petroleum Company, on Thursday night last, will not only be productive of good ; but, as a desire has been evinced to give the Directors another trial, that the previous causes of complaint have been heard the last of. The resolutions which we published on Wednesday, have been passed, most cordially by the meeting, and will be sent on to Sydney by the next mail. They are at once moderate in suggestions ; temperate in the expression of of opinion; and conciliatory in language. So far the past has ceased to live. The Company, virtually, practically, and financially begins life anew. Twelve months in time, and some fifteen hundred pounds in money, have been frittered away, in a manner far worse than the mere word “ unprofitably ” conveys any idea of. The old system of conducting operations, such as it was, is to be discontinued. More supervision, and greater economy will be practised ; and the only hitch that seemed not to be capable of present explanation is the apparently indispensable necessity of the gentleman having professional control of boring operations —that is boring for oil, as against mere pipe-driving—should be possessed of some scientific knowledge, so as to guide him in his search. Whether Mr. Wright, designated by the Directors, and known only as a “ practical tube-driver,” has any of that kind of knowledge that would lead him from the application of scientific data to select one spot in preference to another, as more likely to produce given results, is not known; and being so, it, perhaps, is a pity he was not present at the meeting. ‘For it must be borne in mind, that as the question has been raised, it must be answered ; and, although the shareholders are inclined to keep their shoulders to the wheel, they must see that they are not still pushing an empty waggon up the hill. There must be no more blind eyes to the telescope. Concessions have come

from the Board, in answer to remonstrances made from here: and, with the light of the past to guide us, it will be our fault, if we allow the future to be productive of no more good than has, hitherto, been the case. We believe that as far as management and pipe-driving are concerned, the works are now placed in the hands of experienced men; but we still retain our oft’-expressed conviction that a man, knowing nothing of navigation, might as well attempt to lake command of a ship across the ocean, as for one, equally ignorant of his subject, presuming to bore for oil, and does not know where to look for it.