PETROLEUM

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 275, 17 May 1912, Page 5

PETROLEUM

THE TARANAKI FIELD. The Taraanki (N.Z.) Oilfields, Ltd., formally took possession of the Taranaki Petroleum Company's property yesterday. The directors of the latter company paid a visit to the works in the afternoon, and Mr. D. Berry (ex-chairman) formally handed the property over to the representatives of the new company. A meeting of shareholders of the Taranaki Petroleum Company will be held on May 30 for the purpose of passing resolutions going into voluntary liquidation. FINDS AT PAHIATUA. By Telegraph—Press As«o«ia,tiem. Pahiatua, Last Night. Like Taranaki and round about Gisborne, the Forty-mile Bush district promises to support a flourishing oil industry, at no distant date, in the Mangaone Valley, lying between Paliiatua and Eketalmna, and even further afield. Ample evidence of the presence of oilbearing springs has been discovered. Heports on the field have been made by Mr. S. Fry and Mr. J. 11. Herman, late drilling expert for the Standard Oil Company, and various other companies. An analysis of the mineral water is favorably reported on by Dr. J. H. MacLaurin, Dominion analyst. Mr. Herman has visited all the well-known oil areas in New Zealand, and says that he has seen nothing in prospect that he considers superior to the territory under review. He recommends a thorough trial by deep boring, and feels sure that the reward of prospecting the area will exceed the most sanguine expectations of the prospectors. Boring, it' is stated, will be very inexpensive, as there is abundance of fuel in the shape of fallen bush, well-distributed over nearly the whole area. Mr. Herman examined the indications on the properties of Messrs. Rodney, Mathieson, Godfrey and Lowe. All these indications, he states, appear along the Rongomai Valley in a northeasterly and south-westerly line, extending about four miles. These mainly consist of sa'line mineral springs giving off gas, which burns with a dull red color. This gas, says Mr. Herman, is petroleum gas, and .has all its characteristics, and a three-inch bore sunk on the property of Mr. F. C. Lewis, to a depth of about 400 ft., gave off a large quantity of petroleum gas. and the boring was particularly easy for the whole depth. One of the springs ou Mr. Godfrey's place has belched up mud, and formed a small hillock, and can be described as a small mud volcano. There are several of these mud eruptions on the eastern extremity of the areas. The springs on Messrs. Nagle's and Pitcaithley's properties, four in number, have also been examined. These are very similar to the others above described, but are situated some miles east of them. There is also a very large spring on Mr. Judd's farm, at lhuraua, some seven miles from Rongomai Valley. This is the most powerful one in the district. It gives off large quantities of gas, and is said to give splendid samples of petroleum gas. A company called the Mangaone Oil Fields Company, Ltd., has been formed, with a capital c-f £25,000, to acquire the rights to bore for oil and to mine for coal and other minerals over an area, of 20,000 acres of land, situated in the Mangaone and Kopuaranga survey districts. It is estimated that the capital of the company will be sufficient to sink three 3000 ft. prospecting wells, thus ensuring a thorough testing of the area. Expert drillers are expected to be at work shortly.