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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 66

Mineral Oils

Mineral Oils.

In 1866 attention was first directed to the occurrence in the colony of petroleum, and some very fine oils have since then been found. There are three principal localities, and these produce each a distinct kind of oil:—
1.The Sugarloaves, in the Taranaki Provincial District.
2.Poverty Bay, on the east coast of the Provincial District of Auckland.
3.Manutahi, Waiapu, East Cape.
page 52

The oil from the first has a very high specific gravity, .960 to [unclear: 964] at 60° Fahr. (water at 1). It has thus too much carbon in its composition for its commercial success as an illuminating oil, but is capable of affording a valuable lubricating oil. It resembles oil occurring in Santa Barbara County, California.

The second kind, from Waiapu, Poverty Bay, is a true paraffined [unclear: oil] resembling the Canadian oil. By three successive distillations, and treatment with acids and alkalies, about 65 per cent of a good illuminating oil is obtainable, with a specific gravity of .813.

The third produces a pale-brown oil, nearly or quite transparent specific gravity .829 at 60° Fahr.; burns well in a kerosene lamp [unclear: for] some time, and is therefore of a very superior class; it contains only traces of paraffin, and produces 84 per cent, of an illuminating oil, [unclear: fr] for use in kerosene lamps, by means of a single distillation. By two more distillations 66 per cent, of the crude oil has a specific gravity of .811, which is that of common kerosene.

At Sugarloaf Point, Taranaki, the petroleum (rock oil) oozes from cracks in trachyte-breccia. Wells have been bored to the depth of many hundred feet, but no steady supply of oil has been obtained.

A bonus of 6d. per gallon for the production of kerosene up to 50,000 gallons, in quantities of not less than 10,000 gallons at a, time was offered in 1874 and in 1885, but no applications were received from the same.