PETROLEUM NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 245, 22 November 1909, Page 4

PETROLEUM NEWS.

OIL AND FREEHOLD COMPANY. The following directors' report will be presented at the annual meeting of I shareholders of the Oil and Fruidiolu Company, to be held next month:— During the past twelve mouths work at the Vogeltown bore has gone on without a break, and although progress has been disappointingly slow, the directors recognise that the hard and difficult strata parsed through lisi-. m .a, drilling laborious and caused miirh bus of time by reason of the frequent necessity for re-setting the drills. Except for this slowness, the bore itself is in every respect a satisfactory and crcuitable piece of work, and the excellent "shows'" of oil, which from time In time have been obtained, justify our expectation that pavable results are near al hand. Several layers of hard, pelroli-, ferous sandstone have been encountered, which, although not of payable volume, have been most encouraging and have lo sonic extent been utilised as fuel al the works. At the present time the bore is down to a depth of 1309 feet, and thongi there have been many changes of strain nearly the whole of the country passed through has been hard stuff of one kind and another. The fact that all Ihe lino we have been boring on an incline, or at an acute angle, has also made t.lic work much more difficult. We have not met with any of the soft "papa" which prevails at Moturoa and elsewhere, and our drilling from first to last has been literally by inches. To make quite plain the position ol the well, we may slate that the first 134 ft is lined with 1514 in colonially made casing; the 12in British lulling i down to a depth of R24ft, and the w •'■> to a depth of 130Sft is now cased with 9in tubing. The boring for the reception of 834 ft of l'2in casing followed by din to a depth of BtSflfl, is cijiial to a depth of (iU2llft for :i well averaging (iin, or 91120 ft for one averaging run. Tjie] aim of our manager has been to provide a bore giving plenty of surface area and ample room for operations which cannot conveniently be carried out in ': hole of small diameter. If our operations arc to be continue, it will probably be necessary to reduce the diameter of further boring lo S'/.in. and if this is done, a supply of Tin cas ing will have to be procured. The exhaustion of funds now compels us I • cons'ider whether additional money shali be subscribed or re-construction faced. The position to-day is that «'•• have about 3000 unissued and forfeited shares, and land and plant which have cost us nearly £0090; against this we owoabom £O3O to different creditors. Our sm.iil Englisliercdit has been reduced hynboiM one-half by the importation of goo is which cannot be included in the year's accounts. The financial history of the company may be summarised lliu* 1 : The issue of shares produced approximately Cll.SflO: wc paid for freehold land £1000: we paid for plant, say, 121100; nidation cost, say, £1200; and we have earn-d on work for close upon 2>/i ynr- f r barely £5300, including our present ■•' standings. We think we can a I rale claim credit for having made Hie inoncv go a long way. Economy has been pic Used in every department, and it nas been a matter of concern to the direct ors that up to now the office expenditure has been so comparatively heavy. This has been due to the very consider able correspondence and bookkeeping necessitated by your having such a, large number of small shareholders, and tin shares being payable by Is calls. Wit 1

The financial history of the company may be summarised lliti- 1 : —The issue of shares produced approximately £11.800: wc paid for freehold land £1000: wc paid for plant, say, 12000; nidation cost, say, £1200; and we have earn-d on work for close upon 2'/ :: ynr- f i barely £5300, including our present '•' standings. We think we can a I rale claim credit for having made the go a long way. Economy has been pic Used in every department, and it na? been a matter of concern to the direct ors that up to now the oll'ice expenditure has been so comparatively heavy. This has been due to the very consider able correspondence and bookkeeping necessitated by your having such a large number of .small shareholders, and tin shares being payable by Is calls. Wit 1 the issue of the present balanoo-sVet the secretary lias found himself able m dispense with clerical assistance, and 111 cost of the oll'ice is accordingly redo to a minimum. Our worthy manager has met us >u (be most generous spirit and some time ago he iioi only voluntarily offered m accept an appreciable reduction on himodest salary, but lias also taken up one fresh share every week for many months past. We have been endeavoring to ncg-i liate a mortgage loan for CIOOO I: £ISOO upon our ten acres of freehold land, which is ample security for I.I" latter amount; but. owing to the co gested state of the money market, vn have not yet been able to dn_ so. Directorate.—Some lime ago Air. T. 1\ Skinner resigned bis seat on the boa ■ I and you are now asked to elect nnolhc shareholder to take bis place, as well n • a successor to Mr. M. Jones, who retire by effluxion of time, and is eligible and oll'crs himself for re-election. Auditor.-i Mr. C. T. Mills, P.A., our auditor, is available for re-appointmeul.