PETROLEUM NEWS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 98, 16 October 1911, Page 4

PETROLEUM NEWS

FACILITATING THE INDUSTRY. In the House on Friday the Premier said another Bill before a Select Committee, namely the Mining Bill, should be proceeded with, as it did not contain any very contentious clauses, and was necessary in connection with the oil industry. There were distinct signs that under workable conditions the industry would prove an important one, and one that would give employment to a large number of people. At present under the law there was no proper protection for those who were boring for oil, and their claims could he jumped by boring near at hand to a deeper level than that at which the oil was first found. A circle would have to be defined within which protection should be enforced. Unless something in this direction was done the investment of large sums of money in connection with the oil industry in New Zealand would be prevented. He understood that the tendency was for oil to move downwards on an inclined grade, and people who spent money boring to from two to four thousand feet might Giave their wells tapped by adjacent wells bore a couple of hundred feet deeper. Such action might actually prevent the discoverer from getting any oil at all. People investing their money must get a guarantee that it would not be lost in this manner. The industry was going to be a good thing for New Zealand in many respects. Steamers if assured of a supply would use it as fuel, and generally it would cause an enormous employment of labor. Iu addition there were areas of land of very little use lying idle, upon which there was a prospect of obtaining oil in payable quantities. From many points of view it would pay the country to help this industry.