SIR J. VOGEL’S NEW VENTURE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1961, 26 October 1889, Page 3

SIR J. VOGEL’S NEW VENTURE.

~lt will be remembered that recently.; information was received from Londonannouncing that' Sir J. Yogel wps forming a company to work the petrp-: leum deposits of Taranaki. The Evening Post. a few weeks ago published an article oh the <from which we Timka some 'extracts: —After rpf erring to petroleum deposits in various British colonies, the Post says: — I “ For the moment the most interesting are the oil deposits of New Zealand, because the petrpl|hm shoots to the surface through enormous deposits of iron ore, thus providing a conjunction of ore and the fuel for smelting it, to be found nowhere else under suph happy circumstances. Recently petrpleum has been adopted for smelting purposes in many parts of the United States, andas . thp ]ojl;yi^del,an extremely intense it is found to he particularly valuable in the case of ore of a | refractory character. .But even in America it is oil and the iron ore are found' on'the samp property. This would appear to bp, quite the special feature of the Taranaki oil region of No# Zealand, which was surveyed,,by the, orders of the New Zealand Government a short; time ago. Here the; oil / jets ■ up and forms pools amidst millions of tons of pulverised ore, promising, if drill wells tap a| copipus underground isupply, to render New Zealand the principal iron country, of Australasia. Were thesp petroleum fields situated in the United States ' the- Americans would 'make short work of the task of testing, the existence ©f oil in the region'. To d country which .has; sunk; 55,000 oil wells; in the last thirty years, since Colohel Drake invented the process of drilling for petroleum, and which still drills (hundreds of new wells yearly, the task of sinking a few at Taranaki would appear but a triflle. The New Zealand oil fields ;■ have the special;' advantage over those of the United) States, that-, whereas the oil of Pen-S sylvauia has to he piped along ‘ pipe lines’; 300 dr 400 miles to the're j fineries on the coast, the Taranaki! petroleum deposits are situated 'oni the very coast itself. In this respect, New] Zealand also enjoys an advantage over, Russia, whose Baku ‘ ■ oil fields;; < are' situated nearly 600 miles from the Black| Sea. To connect the Baku' ! oil fields iwith Batoum a pipe line costing £1,500,000 has been proposed by! Russian eapatalista. ~ Inhere would be no need of this costly outly in the case; of the New Zealand oil fields.. As;.to; what would be the possible quantity; of peferoleumiObtainable lit' New-Ply-j mouth, no estimate can be framed! from a mere survey' ’ of the surface, j Neither in Russia nor in America,hadj anybody the slightest idea' that the, surf acje , pools;; and pozjngs: • covered; enormous underground reservoirs until the drill went down; and. tapped them, j In Russia 50,000,000 gallons] of oilj have been obtained 1 in j a-'few; months from a well 700ftdeep, and at; a cost! of only £1500.’ In America] the wells are twice as deep, and.bores; 2000ffc in depth are quite commen.l There remains but a word or two to | be said about the quality of the oil found in the Tarahakv ’ district. Sb j long ago as 1884 the United States Consul at Auckland, New Zealand, mentioned in, a report that it was claimed for the oil by analytical chemists that it is ‘capable of. producing a fine lubricating oil.’ Mr Gordon speaks of the samples > of' oil he obtained as being in ‘ appearance more of a lubricating oil than an illummant; ’ hut possibly he imagined American kerosene to he 1 naturally white and

watery, whereas all petroleum in its crude unrefined condition appears ‘more of a lubricating oil than an illuminant.’ Taranaki petroleum, in point of fact, is a very light running oil, well adapted for refining purposes as well as for smelting iron. Mr Gordon adds that he was shown a report by Mr Sydney Gibbons of Melbourne, who bad made an analysis of this oil, and ‘ spoke of it in terms of the highest praise.’ Altogether, therefore, New Zealand would seem, to have a new future opened to her of fair promise in the exploitation of petroleum,and oil-smelt iron, ibis is a matter for sincere congratulation, since it is calculated to render the British Empire independent to. a _ degree of those supplies of foreign iron ore and foreign petroleum,on which England far too much depends at the present moment.