PETROLEUM NEWS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 101, 6 August 1910, Page 5

PETROLEUM NEWS

STRONG ENGLISH SYNDICATE. ( TO OPERATE IN TARANAKI. * Yesterday. monTing Messrs. WatkLns,; and Fox received a cablegram from Mao J. D. Henry, of the great Admiralty oil fuel informing them that he will- commence operations in''. Taranaki at the end of this year or the, beginning of next. Mr. Watkins, conversing with a New# representative yesterday, said that Mx. Henry would come as the representative of a very strong financial combination, for whom his iirm has secured Goring options in various parts of the district. They have been in communication with Mr. Henry for some months past, and had expected him in the Dominion much, but the oil boom that set in a,t Home caused such a demand upon his , time as the adviser of many who were interesting themselves in oil and in the flotation of companies that he l Was unable to leave England until now. In April last the London representative of the New Zealand Metropolitan Press interviewed him, and in the, course of the interview appears the following:— "The oil fields of the Dominion stand high in the estimation of those who have a practical knowledge of colonial oil field development, and I have'no hesitation in saying that it is only, the long distance which separates , New Zealand, from the Mother Country which is pre- 1 venting it to-day from being a, foremost, if not the first factor in the boom. I feel most strongly that New Zealand will come well to the front before the autumn." "Do you .attach much importance to the oil fields of New Zealand?" "It is impossible jiot to do so when one adds the geological report of Dr.* J. M. Bell, director of the Geological Survey of the colony, which has reached me by last mail, to the stock of useful information obtained from the Taranaki and Gisborne districts. I shall be surprised if this report does not give an impetus to drilling operations in the neighbourhood of Mbunt Egmoat, whei>e' there are most convincing oil and natural 'gas indications." ' 1

"Wihafc other evidence have you that the prospects of New Zealand oil, will be brighter in the autumn?" "My reading of the geological data of these fields has led me to form the opinion that the oil indications are un- ' commonly good. There are well-denned ant'iclinals, numerous oil seepages arid gas escapes, pitch and oil issues on the sea. beach, and, better than all these, producing wells drilled without the assistance of outside capital. There is nothing which I have recently seen in the oil fields of the West Indies and Newfoundland that cannot be duplicated by the oil-bearing territories of New Zealand. There they have mud volcanoes, bitumen on the sea beach, and what we call oil ponds out at sea." No 2 bore is still flowing freely, wltfte. good progress has been made at No % fie country being freer for drilling. A meeting of shareholders of the Taranaki Petroleum Co. will be held at 2 p.m. on Monday, when special resolutions relating to increasing the capital will be submitted. The manager will also submit a report in connection with work under his supervision.