POWER SUPPLY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 64, 18 December 1946, Page 7

POWER SUPPLY

BAY OF PLENTY SCHEME ELECTRICITY FOR GALATEA ' The first stage in an important reticulation scheme that will bring electric power to the Galatea farming settlement, about 50 miles, southeast of Rotorua, has just been completed by the Bay of Plenty Electric Power Board. A line carrying 11,000 volts has been extended ten miles inland to the timber area of Waiohau from Te Teko, near Edgecumbe. The line now supplies power to a private mill which began work last week.

The board began the reticulation into difficult country about a year ago. Its next step will be the provision of a branch line to serve the plantation headquarters of the Whakatane Paper Mills in the neighbouring Matahina district. Shortages of Equipment The main line will be taken gradually about ten miles inland from Waiohau across a big stretch of unproductive fern country to the Galatea township and then about another six miles to complete the coverage of the vihole settlement. Shortages of equipment, such as transformers, cable and poles, will prolong the reticulation work. According to the engineer-manager of the power board, Mr J. D. Dicker, equipment is more difficult to obtain today than during the war and it may be some years before the scheme is extended to the Galatea district.

While supplying more immediate needs, the reticulation scheme will be of great importance io possible future development in the , area. Thousands of acres of planted forests, privately and State-owned, extend into the back country from the Matahina district. When milling begins there, it will be comparatively easy to extend the electricity supply into the new territory. Rangitaiki River Scheme

The possibility of using the Rangitaiki River, which flows through this district, as ’ a source of power, is being discussed with renewed energy. The directors of the Rangitaiki Plains Dairy Company consider that a power station and dam on the river, which has a drop of about 80 feet in one place, would not only help the North Island power supply, but would result in control of the river, which frequently floods the Rangitaiki Plains and threatens the township of Edgecumbe. A j§|| A deputation from the directors of the company will meet the Whakatane Chamber of Commerce shortly to ask for support in its representations to the Government. The Bay of Plenty Electric Power Board considered the river suitable for a hydro-electric scheme about 20 years ago, but its proposal was not approved by departmental' officers.