Poverty Bay Oil Companies.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 967, 6 August 1881, Page 2

Poverty Bay Oil Companies.

The following is from the Sydney Daily Telegraph “An item of considerable interest to Sydney investors, and one of Colonial importance, cropped up at the meeting of the South Pacific Petroleum Company, held yesterday afternoon, at the offices, Sussex-street. It was decided, upon the representations of Mr. William Clarke, one of the directors of the Company, lately returned from New Zealand, and also managing director of the Southern Cross Petroleum Company, recently floated in New Zealand and Melbourne, to commence the exportation of the paraffin mineral lately discovered to Sydney and Melbourne, and also to send bulk quantities of petroleum to be dealt with by the manufacturers of gas from that substance both in Melbourne and Sydney. The importance of a Colonial supply of this cheap lighting material is one that can hardly be over-estimated, seeing that at the present time many hundreds of thousands of pounds per annum are now paid to the United States for the material, that we now learn is at our own doors in very considerable quantity. We understand that Mr. John Robertson, of Botany, and the Apollo Candle Company, of Melbourne, will undertake the production of the first candles from the remarkable deposits lately discovered.” From other sources we learn that Mr. Wm. Clarke has made good use of his time, in the interests of both these Companies, during his absence. He has made himself thoroughly acquainted with the process of making wax, from the paraffin, and which will command a market at about £2B a ton. We have, also, much pleasure in stating that Mr. Clarke has had most satisfactory meetings with the Board of Directors of the South Pacific Company, and which, it is confidently believed, will lead to beneficial results. We are in possession of much more information in regard to the means that have been employed by insiders to work on the credulity of outsiders, but we forbear at the present to mention names. Suffice it to say, that, whatever misunderstandings there have been between the shareholders and the directors in Sydney, they are traceable to some mischiefmakers on the spot, whose identity will be made known in the fulness of time. One man, in particular, is said to be much worse than he has been represented to be.