TARANAKI'S ANNOINTMENT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 228, 25 March 1912, Page 7

TARANAKI'S ANNOINTMENT

A VISIT TO THE OIL FIELDS. (Specially written for the News). Wine and oil are the two Biblical srrn--1 "Is that apeak definitely of content1. :it, and while Taranaki petroleum was )>u. ibly not in the mind of the Psaln.ist when he referred to these concomitants as "making glad the heart of man," in an age when similes and analogies are used with a chaotic and casual commercialism it is permiesible to point the reference. The Taranaki oil, while not exactly suited for the purposes of anointment, is "making glad the heart of man" —the shareholder man, who, pinning his faith to an undeveloped industry, has east his monetary bread upon the oily waters, secure in the conviction that after many days it will be returned to him a thousand-fold. Taranaki, whilst lacking its intense provincialism, has almost the optimism of Auckland with regard to its future. It is bounded on the north by its oilfields and its iron sand, and its dairying, it is bounded on the south by its dairying and its iron sand and its oilfields, it is bounded on the east by its iron sand and its dairying and its- oilfields, and it is bounded on the west by its oilfields, its dairying and its ironsand. They are the faith, hope and charity of the district, and the greatest of these, at the moment, is oil. Ponderous people have written ponderous books about Taranaki petroleum, and eminent experts have analytically dissected its possibilities to the n-tli degree of the fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid. Commercially, of course, these additions to current literature have ; their uses, though the average speculator nowadn s shies at a prospectus ae Balaam's a-i shied at the angel in the way. But thr man on the street cares little for tarbon in decimal points and residuunis in algebraical formulae, even where oil is concerned. He generally prefers a more spirituous lubricant for the gargling of his tonsils, and so far as petroleum is concerned he cares less for how it is obtained than for the price that it costs him.

But there is an interest attaching to this industry quite apart from its commercial aspect,-and it was in a purely lay spirit, unencumbered by any professional knowledge, and frankly admitting, like Toddy, that he "wanted to see wheels go wound," that a visiting

Press representative recently paid a visit to the New Plymouth oilfields. He found them a couple of miles from the town, within a stone's throw of the everlasting sea, and frowned upon by thos« three stern guardians of the harbor, the Sugar Loaves. At first sight the works were not impressive. Three slim roughboarded derricks, set in an isosceles triangle, with a base of a hundred yards, shot into the air, each capped with a sort of witch's bonnet that proved to be nothing but a tonsure of rain-protect-ing eaves. They at once suggested a cheap imitation of the grim and weary rocks that watch over them in almost contemptuous silence, but on closer examination they justified their witch-like character for they preside over a veritable inferno..'

Science, ever unwearying, not content with combing Hie earth's surface, has never hesitated to probe the secrets of its womb. Nowhere is this more wonderfully illustrated than in the development of the oil industry. Down, down," down goes a slim iron pipe, inch by inch under the pressure of the never-ceasing derrick, till the inches become feet and, the feet thousands of feet. What sec-1 rets this moving iron finger searches are disclosed by tlie borings as they come to earth, and just as the orinthologist can const;-,;i moa from the tibia of one of "Brown's lost mules," so these priers into the earth's secrets can paint pretty pictures of the varying strata through which their slender needle is sewing its way with a confidence of accuracy that no mere man can dispute. But it is proverbially "doin' as does it," and at last comes the oil. Evtn the calm and infallible voice of science hesitates to picture from what odorous and mysterious clmmbers the viscous fluid wells, and is content for once to accept results. Without extraneous aid, but simply driven earthwards by its own pent gases the oil flows upwards and pours from the mouth of a two-inch pipe in a thick, brown, stealthy flood, of the color and consistency of thin molasses. It is a noiseless flow while the oil runs, but it is constantly punctuated by the coughing and sneezing of the accompanying gas. Once it has arrived gasping from its long journey to the op,en air, it takes refuge for a quite un-Diogenes-like period in a huge barrel, from which it finds its way through the overflow by a maze of intricate pipes to the big earth wells, holding thousands of gallons, where it await® transmission to the refinery. There are a dozen of these tanks, and others are being dug. Owing to the nature of the ground it-is not found necessary to line them, and the crude oil simply pours into them, making its own binding, until they are full. Theii they are boarded over and the covering heaped with earth as a protection against fire. The tanks themselves', before cloverinf/, look exactly like a slimy green-scummed pool, streaked with yellow lacings of the inevitable paraffin wax which comes a way with the oil, at times so plentifully a« to choke the bores until the pent-up forces underneath force it away with an irresistible burst. It is simply oil ge\ serisni. As two of the three bores are flowing now—and the third is only awaiting repairs—the main difficulty appears for the accomodation to overtake the output, and the digging of big earth tanks, of 200,000 gallon capacity, is proceeding apace. The oil has to be stored in the meantime, as no refinery has been built, save a small experimental one for sample purposes. This is being left for the new British company, which ie in process of flotation, to attend to. Meanwhile the saving of the oil, which threatens to over-run the district like the measles or the blackberry, is the problem which is distracting the directors. The experimental refinery is merely a menu of the good things which the company hopes to table in the near future. These include kerosene, benzine, petrol, paraffin wax, and half-a-dozen other useful by-products which are extracted before the residuum is available to serve' | as fuel.

Next in importance comes the free ga»,' which flows with extraordinary force, and is used for the purposes of the boilers at the works. Captured as it come*, it is led in pipes to furnaces, where under the influence of a steam spray, which controls its tendency to exaggeration, it burns with ,1 ferocity that would have daunted Dante and would have sent qualms to the hearts of Shadraeli, Meschaeh and Abednego. There is enough gas flowing already to light the whole of New Plymouth and make th'e towa independent of other fuel. The commercial aspect of this wonderful field lias already been widely exploited. more or less truthfully, and speaking not as "one having authority," the "more" appears to preponderate over the "less." • The experiments so far have been distinctly primitive, but the results have been wonderfully reassuring. Tlie cautious expenditure of capital, satisfactory as the results have been, lias only served to scratch the. back of an industry that promises to become one of far-reaching importance to the Do- | minion. Taranaki folk are an oily peo- , pie, with their butter and petroleum, but