Hill-. — Oil-ivells and Oil-prospects, East Coast. 513 



reef is fairly saturated with kerosene. The reef smells strongly 

 as you stand alongside. It was found by a metal-contractor 

 who was getting metal for the road and put a shot in the reef, 

 and v/hen he found it the smell was very strong. The seams 

 and the stone are quite damp and greasy, and smell very strong. 

 What do you advise * Is there any way of testing in any way ? 

 What should we look for, &c. ? " 



This illustrates the remark already made as to the east 

 coast being in a large measure an oil-bearing area, and it is of 

 the utmost importance that a more particular survey be made, 

 so that specified areas may be tested to find out whether the 

 oil-bearing beds lie below the 1,321 ft. which have already been 

 tried, or whether the oil-bearing strata have been passed through 

 without discovering the fact. 



The height of the well above sea-level at Wairongamea is 

 450 ft., and oil-indications are met with much higher than this. 

 At Port Awanui in the north, and at Herbertville in the south, 

 the oil-shale beds are within 50 ft. of sea-level. To the north- 

 west of Wairongamea, on the left bank of the Mangatu, similar 

 shale-beds crop out 800 ft. or more above sea-level. At Wai- 

 pawa, forty miles from Napier, the shales are exposed on the 

 left bank of the river, near the brewery, 460 ft. above sea-level : 

 and similar rocks occur in the hills overlooking Porangahau, 

 .300 ft. above sea-level, and at Wimbledon and Weber, on the 

 Wainui-Dannevirke Road. It will be seen from these remarks 

 how widely distributed are the rocks that bear traces of contain- 

 ing oil. 



In the early days of oil-explorations, and before " corners " 

 had been heard of, the relationship between salt springs and 

 petroleum was so intimate in American wells that in the case 

 of oil-borers in certain districts "No salt, no oil" became a 

 maxim among them. And in these days of discovery, when 

 scores of districts are worked for " oil," gas-springs, salt springs, 

 and sulphurous waters are looked upon by experts as important 

 indications of petroleum. 



The oil-fields of the world are now so numerous that it would 

 be difficult to enumerate all the districts where petroleum is 

 obtained ; but no doubt there are many places where oil will be 

 struck when geological surveys will have been carried on system- 

 atically and proper records obtained of the surface-characteristics 

 of a country. The greatest oil-producing countries at the pre- 

 sent time are Russia, North America, Roumania, further India, 

 Japan, the Dutch Indies, Italy, and Algiers ; but Russia, the 

 United States, and Roumania are the only three countries from 

 which oil is exported — in other words, countries where the 

 supply is in excess of each country's requirements. 

 17- Trans. 



