TARANAKI PETROLEUM COMPANY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 471, 14 May 1890, Page 6

TARANAKI PETROLEUM COMPANY.

Auckland, May 8. At the statutory meeting of the New Zealand Petroleum and Iron Company on Thursday, Mr Charles Marvin gave some particulars of the prospects of the venture which will, I imagine, be read with a good deal of interest in New Zealand. Mr Charles Marvin said : As you may have already gathered from the chairman’s remarks, the financial position of the Company is very satisfactory. We have ample working capital operations on the spot will commence as soon as the drillers and oil well-boring machinery arrive from America. Since the formation of the Company special significance has been given to a portion of its lease by the alleged discovery of a new and successful process for working the ironsands of New Zealand. As you are aware, our lease from New Plymouth Harbour Board gives us power to smelt and work the ironsands extending along several miles of beach, as well as bore for petroleum. This ironsand, of which several examples are present on the table, is a singular and unique feature of the Taranaki district. Countless millions of tons of the article lie pulverised and unused along the c >ast, and if abundance of cheap fuel were available and a suitable method of smelting could be applied, the New Plymouth district would rapidly become one of the chief iron-producing districts of the world. An analysis of one of the samples, taken without any preparation from our beach, shows the ironsand to consist of peroxide and protoxide of iron, 88‘44; oxide of titanium, 6 - 0 ; silica, etc., 5*56 ; total parts, 100. Primarily our syndicate was intended to devote its operations to boring for oil, but the interest excited by the successful discoveries that are said to have been made for smelting the ironsands of New Zealand have caused us to give attention to the ironsand question as well, and if we see our way to definite business of a profitable character, we shall take it in hand side by side and concurrently with the boring for petroleum. In regard to the latter, we have recently received a sample consisting of a gallon or more petroleum, taken from one of the oil-oozings on the New Plymouth beach, and an analysis of this is being made by Mr Boverton Redwood—perhaps the most eminent petroleum expert in Europe. The oil is one that will take a high rank among the betterclass petroleums, and if we can ouly tap a copious supply, the results cannot fail to be extremely lucrative to this Company. You are already familiar with the report of Inspector Gordon, who was sent to the spot by the New Zealand Government ; but in excess of his testimony we have that of many independent persous. I former residents at New Plymouth or casual visitors to the locality, who have spontaneiusly attested the existence of these surface joyings and oil pools, and wish us success ivith ourenterprfee. Whatliesbelowthesurace thedrill can alone reveal;but in the meanwhile, it is well to know that the surface ndications are as good as any in the najority of the petroleum regions of the vorid. In America, and again in Baku, in Russia, the copiousness of the present mpply was not suspected, even by the most anguine of the pioneer oil borers, until the übterranean streams were struck many mndred feet below the surface, and the il began to gush forth. Such a reult, we naturally hope, will attend

ur contemplated boring operations ; nd, at any rate, we shall do our best to ender the enterprise successful. The blest drillers we can find and the best lachinery will be sent to the spot; and,

: there is any large subterranean supply, 8 elsewhere, it will not be our fault if we o not tap it. We have been in communiation with a number of firms and drillers i regard to our operations, and, in order bat the best selection shall be made, it has een arranged that -I shall proceed to anada and the States, and properly oranise there the drilling expedition to be mb to New Plymouth. The responsiility attaching to such a task of selection id Organisation will not be a light one, at it has to be faced, and I shall cerdnly do my best to render the arrangeents so complete that, once the drillg party arrives at its destintiona, le operations will proceed with rapidity,

and the results be made known to the shareholders as soon as it is possible to do so. (Cheers.) Mr Hawes then proposed a vote of thanks to the chairman and to Mr Marvin for their very satisfactory and explicit statements made to the meeting. Mr Pilling seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously. The Chairman briefly acknowledged the compliment, and the meeting terminated. RAT PEST IN LINCOLNSHIRE. The Lincolnshire farmers continue to writhe helplessly under the rat pest and to curse the cupidity which led them to sell the saving stoat and the wily weasel to “ them domd New Zealanders.” One man writes that he kills from 500 to 1,000 rats nightly with poisoned barley and yet they do not appear to materially diminish. Another, a Billingbow man, declares that 300 rats were killed out of one stack during thrashing operations on Friday. I learn, by-the-way, that the wings of the 3,000 pigeons placed on board the Tongariro for the sustenance of the last consignment of vermin for New Zealand were sold to a wholesale milliner’s for a substantial sum.