COMMONWEALTH OIL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 1 October 1913, Page 7

COMMONWEALTH OIL.

WHERE A MILLION WENT. -The'.story of how £ 1,450,136 was spent without ;the getf ting any return was &>ld during the hearing of an application on September 11 by the Commonwealth Oil Corporation to Mr Burke (mining warden) for the suspension of labour conditions for six months on their leases at Newnes (New South Wales). Mr Stafford McLennan, accountant, stated that the total amount spent by the company since their occupation of the leases was :For salariesl and wages, £463,054; plant and machinery, £335,656; mining operations, £306,586; prospecting and surveying, £91,000; railway construction, £340,000; railway running in excess of receipts, £14,000; maintenance, £5840; making a total of £1,450,136. The company had held the leases for eight years, and so far there had been no return. Suspension for six months was asked for on the ground that the lessees were temporarily unable to continue operations', and required reasonable time to make the neoe*.-: i» v arrange.nent«; Mr David Fell, M.L.A., stated that he was the legal receiver for the company. From his investigation of the affairs of the company since his appointment, in running Newnes alone they had lost £24,000 a year. Prior to 'his appointment a reasonable estimate #f his company's losses, without considering interest and depreciation, would be double that amount. It wa.s now proposed to reconstruct the company, and up to August 1 £61,700 of the £350,000 required had been provisionally subscribed,. £54,000 of which was subscribed by Sir John Brunner. The suggestion was to build retorts at Capertee and a refinery at Parramatta River. In the opinion of experts that would be a more payable proposition when the £350,000 was raised by the company, which would at once start operations. The Warden granted a partial suspension for three months, and ordered that te-.) men should be permanently employed for about 18 months. Newnes had a population of several thousands, but at present the place is practically deserted. It is expected that operations will be resumed early next year.