SEARCH FOR OIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 14, 11 July 1911, Page 3

SEARCH FOR OIL.

EXPERT TELLS 01- NEW FIELDS IN NEW ZEALAND.

The following is a summary of an interview which appeared in the London Star (May 25th): Mr. J. D. Henry, the well-known oil expert, of 4 London Wall-buildings, who has just returned from a tour round the world in search of petroleum, yesterday told a Star representative some of his experiences.

"I spent two months in- Russia, - ' he said, "going through the oilfields of Baku, Maikop, and Chatnia. Then came homo for a week or two to get out my last book, 'Oilfields of the Empire,' and was off again on a six months' tour round the world, especialy with rega.ru to the development of petroleum in the British Empire.

NEW ZEALAND OIL. "No part of the world has interested me .so much as New Zealand. A satisfactory feature of the oil situation in New Zealand is the practical interest which Sir Joseph Ward, the Prime Minister, takes in it. Sir Joseph is well posted on oil matters, and it is possible that he may make a statement on the subject of the New Zealand oilfields during his present visit."

Mr. Henry added that the Taranaki (New Zealand) oilmen had sent over a large quantity of the local production to be tested in London. It was. he said, too early to express an opinion as to the result, but there was every prospect of the New Zealand battleship burning oil fuel produced in the Dominion.

UQUID FUEL. Touching on liquid fuel subjects, Mr. Henry said lie crossed from Sydney to Vancouver on the Union Company's steamer Makura when she knocked three days off the Pacific record. She, did this by using eight boilers instead of six, and incrcasng her coal consumption from 120 tons to 150 tons a day. If oil is over used on this steamer, she will, he considers, bring the record down another two days, and make the SydneyVancouver run in 18 days. Jt -would then be possible to land the Australian mail in London in 20 days. The Makura consumed 3000 tons of coal. The use of 1000 tons of oil would have ■fives the Makura an additional 2000 tons of cargo space. .Mr. Henry also told the Star representative that he crossed from Xew York to Liverpool in the White Star liner Cedric. Tn the early morning, when she came up from Queenstown to Liverpool, her sreat promenade and sports deck was covered with gritty coal smuts thrown out of her smoke stacks. There would, he said, have been no dirt if she had been burning oil, "and there will be neither smoke stacks nor dirt when internal combustion engines become the means of propulsion in our trans-Atlantic liners." he added, A jf ' THE \YORTJ>»B OUTPUT. ""•

Mr. Henry's view U that the world's output of petroleum is likely to increase enormously in the next few years as systematic development proceed.*, and that the British Empire includes excellent fields for this development.