PETROLEUM NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 221, 16 March 1912, Page 6

PETROLEUM NEWS.

DISCOVERIES IN PAPUA. The discovery of petroleum in Papua, which was reported by cable recently, seems to have attracted a great deal of attention in Australia. The report sentto the Minister of External Affairs by i the Lieutenant-Governor of the territory is a very interesting document. Indications of petroleum at a point four miles east of the Vailala river were described to the magistrate of the Gulf Division, Mr. L. Henderson, by a settler, Mr. G. H. Thomas, and the men visited the place together. Mr. Henderson states that he saw a number of minute craters, extending at intervals of a few yards' for a quarter of a mile. Though they were quite pold, mud and water were churning in them, and in some places the ground was working as if it N were subjected to great pressure from below. Gas was exuding from the craters, and it was lighted with a match, showing a red and bluish flame. There was a slight odor that faintly resembled kerosene, and the smell of the fumes from the burning gas was like that given off by methylated spirits. Mr. Henderson and Mr. Thomas continued their investigations, and thirty miles inland from the set of craters they discovered a larger area of gas-producing soil. Here the froth caused by the bubbling of the mud and water in the little craters smelt strongly of kerosene,' and the noise caused by the gas forcing itself to the surface was heard some distance away. Some of the jets of gas were lighted and burned for long periods, and the prospectors boiled a billy ■ over one of them in "a few minutes. A large Assure gave off a powerful jet of gas and burnt so fiercely that great difficulty was experienced in extinguishing it. The native police who accompanied the magistrate were so alarmed that they were prevented only by stern measures from rushing away into the bush. Two more outcrops of craters were discovered, and in the neighboring river Mr. Henderson found sandstone shale. He has taken steps to secure an examination of the spot by scientists, and the results will be awaited with interest.