OIL NEGOTIATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 192, 12 February 1912, Page 4

OIL NEGOTIATIONS.

We have no doubt that the action of the directors of the Taranaki Petroleum Co. in further extending the time for the completion of the purchase of the company's interests by the English people will meet with the approval of shareholders as a whole, though naturally disappointment will be felt at the delay in getting under way. The position is that the English financiers who are promoting the company to develop our oil resources find the condition of the London financial market unfavorable for the floating of their concern, and are holdipg off till it takes a less unfavorable turn. They, naturally enough, wish to take no risks; they desire the company to be fully or over-subS6ribed, and not have to call upon the underwriters to "make good." It was originally intended to go on the market in November, but the financial barometer was found to be fairly low then and it was considered inadvisable to proceed with the proposition till early in the New Year. Since then, however, the barometer has still further declined, and "until it assumes a more normal aid healthy condition the London people are adverse to taking any risks over the flotation. Hence their application for an extension. This has been granted till the eiid of April, fpr a consideration of an extra £SOOO. By that time the financial market at Home should have fully recovered its stability. We believe the directors would have been justified in granting the extension without any monetary consideration. In the matter of the oil development the interests of the local company and the British Oil Trust are identical. It is to our interests as much as theirs that there should be a successful flotation in London. Much hinges on it. It is not only the success of the one company that is involved; it is the success of similar and allied enterprises, which, if given_ play, must largely increase the prosperity of the Dominion as a whole and of Taranaki in particular. The proposed company is 110 small one, and the greatest care has to be taken to guard against any risk of failure. Financial men are notoriously sensitive, and it may be that in this case they are over-careful, but it is better to ere on this than on the other side when such big interests are involved. We believe the proposition is such a good and attractive one from an investor's point of view that all the money wanted can be found in New Zealand and Australia, providing it is properly placed before investors. Still, there are sound reasons why we should at this juncture have the financial co-opera-tion of tie English oil investors in the development of our fields. Like most people we are anxious to see the company floated, and work started in a thorough-going fashion, but there is too much at stake to try and force the hands of the people interesting themselves in the matter, and who, we are certain, are just as anxious as some ot those who have lately given vent to their dissatisfaction and impatience to complete the transaction with the least' possible delay. The news of the successful strike of oil at No. 5, which we publish this morning, must materially assist the promoters in floating the company and also further encourage those who have by their dogged pluck and determination brought the industry to its present highly satisfactory position. If the flow is maintained, as is likely, seeing how No. 2 has behaved during the past 25 months, we will soon be in for most prosperous times.