Hill. — Oil-tvells and Oil-prospects, East Coast. 509 



Art. XLVI. — Oil-wells and Oil-prospects along the East Coast. 



By H. Hill, B.A., F.G.vS., Napier. 

 [Read before the Haicke's Bay Philosophical Institute, Wth September, 1906.] 



Plate XXIV. 

 The " striking of oil " at Moturoa, near the Town of New Ply- 

 mouth, at a depth exceeding 2,000 ft., has again drawn attention 

 to the oil-prospects along the east coast of this Island. For many 

 years Poverty Bay has been regarded as the centre of an oil 

 district of large extent, and in the years gone by, when travelling 

 and means of conveyance were both difficult and expensive, quite 

 a number of " enterprises " were undertaken in the hope of 

 striking oil by those who knew something of American enter- 

 prises and had faith in a payable oil-field being discovered within 

 the limits of Poverty Bay. And so long ago as eighteen years 

 the news was spread over the colony that oil had been struck 

 by the South Pacific Company. Speculation at the time ran 

 high as to whether the news was a mere flash in the pan — a 

 repetition of many similar reported successes— for a successful 

 oil-well at that time meant much for the future prosperity of 

 Poverty Bay and for the colony as a whole. Ten years pre- 

 \'iously a visit had been paid by me to the site where the first 

 oil-bore had been attempted, on the top of a hill certainly 1,300 ft. 

 above sea-level. At the time of my \dsit work had been stopped, 

 but it was possible to collect in the well-holes scattered about a 

 barrel of crude petroleum. This site was subsequently abandoned, 

 and a new bore was tried on the bank of a small stream known 

 as Wairongamea, some five miles or so below the place of the 

 first sinking, and not far from the junction of the stream with 

 the Waipaoa River that flows into Poverty Bay. This place is 

 about thirty miles to the north-west of Gisborne, and is situated 

 within an extensive district which geologically might be set 

 dowii as Cretaceo-tertiary. Some distance further up the river, 

 and near the junction of the Mangatu Stream ^^'ith the Waipaoa, 

 another well known as the Minerva was being put down by a 

 company. This bore was about a mile or a little more from the 

 Pacific Company's well. Having work to do ^\^thin a few miles 

 of the workings, and being interested in the alleged striking of 

 oil, the opportunity was taken to visit the wells, and a paper in 

 the Transactions for 1888 contains the results of my visit at that 

 time. 



The " striking of oil " had been followed by disaster, for an 

 explosion had taken place, and the derrick had been burnt, 

 and the tools lost in the well. There were, of course, rumours 



