PROSPECTING FOR OIL.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 May 1938, Page 6

PROSPECTING FOR OIL.

that arrangements have been made to prospect the oil-bearing lands of New Zealand much more thoroughly than has hitherto been possible, and'to carry exploratory bores to a great depth, the people of this district should see to it that the Eastern Wairarapa gets its due share of attention. In a number of places in the district gas seepages suggest the presence of subterranean oil and may be expected to justify methodical prospecting.

The position of owners of land on which indications of oil are to be noted has been changed greatly, for the time at least, by the action of the Government in securing the passage of legislation which makes all oil royalties a State monopoly. Presumably, in the conditions thus established, owners of property on which an oil strike was made would be entitled only to compensation for loss or disturbance.

Apart from the question of royalties, however, the discovery of oil in payable quantities would be, both from a national and a district standpoint, of great economic importance. Besides providing a basis for a valuable industry, which might be expected in one way and another to afford a considerable amount of profitable employment, the production of oil in large quantities here or in other parts of New Zealand would modify and might even eliminate entirely one of the least satisfactory items in the trading balance of the Dominion—the huge amount paid annually for imported motor spirit and other mineral oil products. For the year ended March 31 last, imports of motor spirit, lubricating oil and crude residual oil were valued at over £2,900,000, an increase of upwards of £641,000 as compared with the preceding year.