PETROLEUM PROSPECTS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 255, 7 March 1911, Page 4

PETROLEUM PROSPECTS

A BIUGIIT OUTLOOK. MR. J. D. HENRY'S OPINION. INTERVIEW IN AUCKLAND. Auckland, March 4. Interviewed prior to his departure from New Zealand. Mr. J. D. Henry, the oil expert, said his mission had had a threefold object. His next technical work will be on the oilfields of New Zealand; he has to prepare reports for important London interests; and he has, as already announced, been commissioned by the Minister of Mines to write an independent report for the Government. Mr. Henry went on to say that in his opinion the day would come, probably in as short a period as six years, when the value of New Zealand's oil production would be equal to that of gold, and this possibility should not be overlooked by those who were responsible for the organisation and work of the Geological Survey Department. Mr. Henry added: "Of the two industries in New Zealand, gold is to-day incomparably the more important, but oil has potentialities and a great future which gives value—from financial, industrial and ( employment points of view—which ought not to be overlooked. I have seen wl<at oil has done in friend- ' ly competition with gold in some of the famous gold-producing States of America, and expect to see something similar happen, though probably in a smaller way, in the case of New Zealand." QLD-TIME ADVICE RECALLED.

"Research work in connection with my next work on oil brought me into close touch with the Hon. Oliver Samuel, the father of the Taranaki petroleum industry, and from him I learned the interesting fact that some twenty-five years ago Mr. Chnrles Marvin was professionally connected with the New Zealand petroleum and iron syndicate, formed to work the petroleum deposits and titaniferous ironsands extending over several miles of beach at Taranaki. Mr. Charles Marvin, one of England's greatest travellers and pamphleteers, was the man who some thirty years ago urged English financial interests to keep 'a sharp eye on Taranaki and on some of the other oilfields in New Zealand." UNSUSPECTED WEALTH.

"To sum up tUe position of the various New Zealand fields at the present day," said Mr. Henry, "New Plymouth is anabsolutely proven oilfield. Gisborne offers prospects of being in years to come perhaps, the most extensive, if pot the most prolific oilfield, and Kotiiku has, in view of recent developments and an introduction of new capital, most excellent prospects." In conclusion, Mr. Henry expressed the opinion flint the oil area in Now Zealand was very much more extensive than the Government geologist thought, and he emphasised the importance of centring attention on finding the oil and preparing it for the market, without troubling about foreign competition. As to the negotiations between himself and the Taranaki Petroleum Company, all he would commit himself to was the statement that he had good reason to believe that the negotiations would be carried to a successful issue. "It will not be my fault if the petroleum world does not, in a short time, take a very keen interest in tfcat locality, to its substantial benefit," headded.

Mr. Henry leaves Auckland on Monday for Australia, where he has work to do in the Blue Mountains. He will travel in the Mnkura to Vancouver, going on 1 to the oilfields of California, then to north-west Canada, thence to London;, via New York. Now is the time to get into pieference.shares. To-morrow mav be toolate. Send applications to Walter Bewlev, New Plymouth.—Advt,