THE TRADE COMMISSION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 251, 13 March 1913, Page 5

THE TRADE COMMISSION

LOCAL INDUSTRIES. TARAXAKFS PROSPECTS. IXTERESTIXfj EVIDENCE. The Empire Commission sat last ni"ht in Dip I hainlici- of Commerce building to take evident-!! «,„ matters of Imperial interest. The members present were Sir Rider Hazard (j„ the (; hair), and Messrs. \V. Loriiner. T. tiarlick and Bowring. Sir Rider Haggard announced that they were a quorum of the committee, and were prepared to hear any evidence available. Mr. E. 8. Johns thanked the members of the Commission for having decided, at their request, to take evidence in New Plymouth on matters of Imperial interest. after, as the members of the Chamber of Commerce understood, it had been decided not to take evidence here. . THE DAIRY IXC INDUSTRY. Mr. J. Connett, chairman of the Bell Block Dairy Company, gave the history of the growth of the co-operative movement in Taranaki during the past fifteen years, lie outlined the steps necessary for tin? formation of a dairy company. and the method under which they were worked. He stated how the co- * operative movement bad spread until ' now (he factories in Taranaki bad their own co-operative freezing works, a butter box manufacturing plant, and extensive busb-cutt.ing rights and sawmill. To Mr. Bowring: Co-operative factories had been started by private enterprise. The Government had assisted bv supplying instructors, and bv grading the produce. No butter was shipped ex- ... ccpt under graders' certificates, and the first grade was over 88. The Governmen made no charge for grading. At present there was sufficient timber for butter boxes in New Zealand, but it would oulv last for a few years. To Mr Oarliek The institution of cooperative factories had undoubtedly increased their trade. They bad dairy associations in the North and South Island, which were of great assistance in shipping. Undoubtedly a good deal of their success had been due to cooperation. and also to the Government giving them instructors and grading their produce. Xo doubt the latter had placed their produce on a higher plane, and they had reaped enhanced prices. To Sir Rider Haggard: Co-operation \ had been a success. They did not pay f n. dividend, but divided nnv balance per j Hi of butter-fat between the suppliers. ■> Butter factories for the last four years j had averaged U'Ad to 12Vj.il per lb. Last ! vear some of the cheese factories paid j out over 15d. Before the time of frees- '< in<r and exporting to England, thp in- I dnstrv was in -> precarious condition, ] 4d. 5d and fid being paid out. There 1 were dairviirr and grazing districts, and" < almost all the farmers in the former j helonwd to one or other co-operative | factories. They had had complaints at | times re the" flavor at some .factories, \ but these had been remedied of late, and' the quality was now considered almost perfect, so there was a great market .- for it. ] Mr. J. B. Connett also spoke on this t subject. He explained that since the companies had taken over the freezing 1 works it had cost lOd per box for freezing. Now it only cost 4y 2 d. It was i no use making profits to pay additional income tax. To Mr. Bowring: The system ivm to keep the cost of handling down to the lowest ebb. • . To Sir Rider Haggard: Co-operation, besides its financial benefit, had exercised a. considerable humanising influence. It had brought the farmers to- ' "ether, and had helped to educate' ! them. | NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR. . ' Mr. J. B. Connett submitted a copy of the annual report and balance-sheet, for the ensuing year, which had not yet been published. He further stated that the exports for 1012 had been 15,680 tons and the imports T0,250 tons.. Though the exports were much smaller, they were very valuable. The trade had increased 8(1 per cent, in ten years. Sir Riger Haggard: Tell us something' of its history. What are its capabilities; and depths? Mr, Connelt: In theyfirst instance, iijt 1870 a loan of C 200.000 \vas raised fot a period of thirty years. Recently that matured, and there was £G5,000 sink'f ing fund accrued. Since then we have borrowed £275.000 to pay off the loaiji and carry on the work. With this w« bought a new dredge and extended thebreakwater (!00 feet. The breakwater was carried out 2512 feet, (lie wharf 100 ft' ft., and the. berthing aceommodatioir was 1500 feet. There is a deep-water berth 700 ft. long, with 2Cft of water.. The berth lias been dredged 33ft. to a hard bottom, but required further tlredg.'ing to remove the sand that had ac- f cumulated latch'. The inner berth is from 15ft. to llift. deep, and shallowed from 17ft. to 14ft. These depths are all at low water spring tides. There is a rise of 10ft.. in the tides. The present depth of the entrance is 18ft; part of' it was 25ft. deep, but it is necessary to take the shallowest. About 1000 ft by 40ft bad yet to be dredged to reduce it all to a uniform depth of 25ft. Mr. Lorimcr: 1 note that your imports have increased rapidly. What dothese consist of? Mr. Connett: All sorts. vYe have more accommodation now, and the material conies here instead of from Wellington. Direct ships do not come here yet for dairy produce. This is all shipped at Wellington. A large proportion of 'our imports coine direct. We use a large quantity of basic slag. A sinking fund of 1 per cent, has been provided for the new loan, which is of 3(1 years' duration. We have the power to invest, the sinking fund ourselves. We pay 4'/> per cent., for the loan, and got £lOl for it.; To Mr. Bowring: We have ample ftipds as far as we can see to do what was anticipated when the loan was raised. We will have sufficient water to accommodate boats like the Athenic,. etc., when the work is complftced. And we expect the ships will come then. If tve could get the men to work long hours we could get the work done 25 per ceqt. sooner. It seems a shame, wlien we have a dredge that cost £34,000. not to be able, to get the full use ,of her. To Mr. Qnrlick: There Is a plan available of the harbor. To Mr. Lorimer: We did not ask the contractors of the dredge to continue working it. as we could work it cheapo? ourselves. . . Mi". Lorimer: I don't know To Air. Oarliek: The depth of theoikt berth is from 28ft. It is necessary to try and economise by getting direct boats here with their imports and to. tal-e away exports. To Mr. Loriiner: The rather striking: variations in the revenue are due to the fact that the Main Trunk railway has diverted so much traffic. Prior to that 45,000 passengers came through, «Tid paid so much per bead. Most of tfns was subseiiuently lost. We have jut'isdictionover thirty miles of foreshore, which contains millions of tons of ; »-onsand. Replving to Sir Rider Haggard, lie said that be thought the existing trade-

ju>i ilit'il tin; expenditure of sueli large sium, and they were looking for a tnia-!t larger trade. -Men preferred only to work, full time, and 110 overtime. 'l'd Mr. Lonmer witness said Lliat they had revenue from reserves, and the revenue af tlie port was .181)00 more tlian the expenditure, if tliey could not pay interest tliey had power to strike a rate, but had not had to do so as yet. In reply to Sir Rider Haggard ,he ex- . plained the principle of the differential rating areas. Mr. Newton King explained that there r. eii- (lidowments whieli were formerly part of the ordinary revenue, but now went to pay the interest, which accounted for part of the apparent drop in revenue. These endowments were now worth £ 150(1 per annum. In three years these would run out, and would be worth much more. Reverting to freight, he pointed out that the freight on manures was 1 lis from Liverpool to Wellington, ami from Wellington to New Plymouth 14s i)d. This was one of the reasons whv a harbor was a necessity here. To Mr. Lorimer: The dredging was going on with the object of direct shipping. The Shaw-Saville Company had . agreed to send their boats as soon as i sullicient water was available. Previously he had brought his manures by sailing vessel direct, but the trade had now grown so much that he could not get a sailer big enough, and had to ship by steamer via Wellington. There was a great loss, too, by the use of hooks in transhipping. He had lost 50 tons of his last shipment, and could not recover it, as the dues were paid in front. They had :C37,!)()0 in band to do the dredging, and could yet borrow £25,000 additional if required. It was estimated that ] the dredging would cost £20,000. The question of the Parapara lease was also explained. Tests of the ironsand had been made from time to time,. Captain W. Waller (harbormaster) said that, even in its unfinished state, the Xew Plymouth harbor was of great value. It was capable of still further extension, and when the improvements were earned out, as proposed, it would be the harbor of refuge between the North Cape and Wellington, capable of being entered at all tides and in all weathers. The great fault of all the harbors on the West Coast was that all had bars. As an artificial harbor it had more, advantages than any other in New Zealand, as the outlying islands offered protection. At times, after heavy weather, there had been small breaches in the breakwater, but nothing exceptional. Napier had had far greater difficulty in this respect, but 1 had overcome it. New Plymouth was approximately a hundred miles nearer ' to Sydney "than Wellington. There 1 were, too. no oll'-lyiiig dangers at New Plymouth. Even' in thick weather ' steamers could come into New Plymouth ■ safely with soundings. Wellington, one of the bent commercial harbors Jn the ' world, had to be approached through ■ Cook Straits, which v/ere dangerous in thick weather. There was a direct ser- ' vice between Wellington and Sydney, and the advantages of the Sydney 1 steamers coming to New Plymouth would 1 lie manifest. Referring to the sand difficulty, he stated that the sand came ' in from the southward. The great thing, of course, wondd be to prevent the sand '■ getting in, which, he thought, could be ' accomplished l>v connecting Moturoa > with Mikoiahi by a rubble wall. This wall would be about 1800 feet long. • There was a depth of from 12ft. to 14ft. 1 at low water. Tt would trap the sand. " Nature had practically made this a breakwater, lie had no estimate of the ' cost, not being an engineer. The work ' already done would not be useless, but he thought that had it been known at ' the time the harbor was commenced to what dimensions vessels would grow, it • might have been better to have commewed the larger scheme, but this would have been much more expensive " to start, owing to the depth of water at the shore. ' To Sir Rider Haggard: His scheme would take a Dreadnought, and, from ' a strategic point of vk.»v, would prob- • ably be favored by the Admiralty. To Air. Bo wring: He could not say 8 whether it had ever been contemplated to have the breakwater longer than at 1 present. The scheme he suggested would give a harbor of 200 acres. Sir Rigcr Haggard: That w*3 a mat- '' ter for future consideration. t j OIL INDUSTRY.

Mr. C. Carter, in his opening remarks, brielly traced the history of the petroleum industry in Tnranaki, from the lir.st attempt to obtain the oil in 18(10 to tin? present day. Referring to the present production of oil, lie said that tliev had now two liowing wells, and one wliicli was at present being cleaned out. No. o bore, which was down 237") feet, had commenced liowing oil on "May 7tli. 1912. and up to .March 2, 1913, had produced 121,201 gallons, a daily average of :>!t7 gall oils. In this well the, water had been shut oil' liv the most, modern method. No. 3 well was down -1020 feet ami had been producing 130 gallons daily since April Ist, li) 10. Water, had been cut oil' at 2.)4(i feet, but three, oil seams had been met with above this, from which the company were gaining no advantage, as they were shut oil' by the casing, lie pointed out that where the water was allowed to come in con-l tact with the oil the latter was sent' back. N T o. 2 bore, which was now be-i ing cleaned out, hud flowed for Ovei'j three years, since January nth, 11)10, of; its own accord, and without any mechanical aid had steadily produced 4SO gallons per <lay. This was the first occasion it had been cleaned out. When the three wells were flowing they were producing 1217 gallons of oil per day. Since; the Taranaki (New Zealand) Oil Fields, 1 Limited, had come into existence, they' had sent out a votary plant, about 110 feet from top to bottom, which had bored a depth of 130 feet. No. 1 bore at Hell Block was down 1500 feet, audi gas had been struck at 800, 1100 and] 14iO iect. The water pressure at the i bottom of the bore was (iSO lbs to the' sepia re inch, and as it was an 8-inch, the) gas had to break through a pressure ofi 32.000 lbs. No. 2 bore at Bell Block was[ down 1100 feet and gas had been cn-i countered on three occasions. The com- ■ panv held boring options over 2000 acres j' in the locality, ami he pointed out tliatj the favourable gas indications augured, well for the strikim; of oil. which would prove that the field was of large extent.! Referring to the erection of the refmnnd stores. 1

ciT lie emphasised the fact that tin; great (li 11 ii*ii 11 v with the previous company hail been to dispose ol the oil wlurii won. They spoil money in jp'Ltin;,' ii. out of the bowels ol' the earth, and then Idng tanks to put it back i hi: 'J'arauaki Petroleum Company hail made strenuous ell'orts to sell their oil, hut the best oiler available was 1 \U\ per gallon from the New Zealand tiovoru•nient, made, perhaps more to show its | friendliness to the industry than on acjcount of its need for the oil. This <1 ilf-

(lenity was an in)poiiiiiit factor in ihc Home lioiiril deciding to erect u refinery. Furthermore, tin 1 erection of this j and tin' knowledge tlmt they could thu? dispose of their oil had given a stimulusto otlier companies, which had alreadj been formed, iind were in process ol formation, not only in laranaki, but elsewhere in the Dominion. The oil a I present iu stock, when refined, woiih release an additional £15,01)0 for furth cr development. J\v June, when the re linery would be ready for operation; from their present output, they wol'.U have over (iiili.OUO gallons ready for re fining, and by that time probably otlie; wells' would 'be flowing, as several ex ports, whom he named, were all of opin ion that this was a most likely Held. Mf. Lorimer did not consider that tli results so far obtained justified the cree ifftm of the refinery. He considered tha j they should have pumped the bores firs j to ascertain their yield.

Mr. Carter said that pumping was s costly process. It was no use unlesi they' had the most modern machinery owing to the pressure of gas. Mr. Lorimer: "A trifle compared witl the cost o£ a refinery." Mr. Carter said that. he was quite sat isfied that every well put down to tin oil sands would produce. He was em phaticallv of opinion that the refinerj was justified. Experts had been out and it was on their recommendation t( the Home Board that the refinery_ was erected. There was 110 local advisory board at the time. Mr. Lorimer said that lie was pleasei to know tliev had such an asset, and was delighted that tliev had formed such 1 very confident opinion of it. He hopec their expectations would be realised. I anything was to be said in the Commis sion's report on the subject they musi have definite grounds .for it, which luu not been shown vet. At present tliei were only producing one-tentii of v,lia they could refine. If they could con vince the Commission that that 10 pe cent, would be increased they would In delighted to include it in the report. 1 further authenticated or purred in the bores now being drillec they would be pleased to hear of them In reply to Sir Rider Haggard, Mr Carter remarked that the refinery woul< be completed, whatever the new well: produced, and on further questioning b\ the members, he stated that sharehold crs in the old company had such con fidence in the oil that thev had re-invest ed the whole of the purchase monev if the new companv. The 090,000 gallon: of crude oil in stock, by American stand aril, was valued at 1 y,<\ to 4d per gal lon. Refined oils were advancing _ir price, cspeciallv since the was establishing a reserve of 1,000.001 gallons. The whole fuel question was lchanain" from coal to oil. and it woul< be a"great thing for both New Zoalanc ' sind the Old Country if could de velop their supplies, lie belived then was a big field here, anil they hat plentv of money to develop it. Messrs. F. P. Corkill and A. E. Wat kins also handed in voluminous writtei evidence on the subject, the former stat ing that he was chairman of anothei companv, which had got oil. Mr. Lorimer: There is no questior that you have «ot oil, but have you i! in paving quantities? Mi\ Corkill: "We are going to have sir." PAHA PARA TRON. Mr. I). Berrv submitted written docu ments relative to the Parapara ironsancl and also some samples of the ore. A discussion ensued 011 the matter be tween Mr. Berrv and Mr. Lorimer, whr is the head of a large steel manufacturing business iu Glasgow, and the sitting concluded-TO.-DAY'S PROCF.EDINTIS. Tliis morning the Hon. Bowring, whe arrived last night, will pay a visit to the 1 oil wells at Moturoa. and at about half- ; past ten the whole partv will be taken for a motor trip into the country,,,to . '.Leppertori proceeding itlfiu-e ito /the North Euniont Hostelry House, where they will be enterained to luncheon. They will leave for Auckland by the Rarawa this evening.