The Press FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1961. Power For New Zealand

Press, Volume C, Issue 29511, 12 May 1961, Page 12

The Press FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1961. Power For New Zealand

The reply of the Minister of Electricity (Mr Goosman) to deputations at Dunedin is a convincing answer to all reasonable critics of the Cook Strait power cable. Mr Goosman’s figures enable a comparison to be made of the respective costs of supplying the North Island’s power needs from -the abundant potential of the South Island and. alternatively, by developing the North Island’s scattered and less fruitful sources. Completing Benmore and constructing Aviemore (both on the Waitaki river) and laying the Cook Strait cable and land transmission lines will cost £36.2 million. Schemes in the North Island having a comparable output would cost £69 million; and transmission costs would raise this by £9 million to £7B million—some £4O million more than South Island development with the Cook Strait cable. (Since Kopuriki hydro station in Whakatane county is included in both the Minister’s schemes it is excluded from these comparisons). To the £4O million difference the Minister adds standing and capital charges and running costs amounting to £ 12.4 million. Without the Cook Strait cable Benmore would incur standing charges for which there would be no revenue in return; the Minister conservatively calculates this at £4 million. Savings of coal at Meremere

steam station could amount to £3 million. Thus, over eight years, the North Island alternative to South Island development based on the Cook Strait cable would involve an additional expenditure of more than £52 million. Mr Goosman also drew attention to the uncertainty of hydro prospects in the North Island. The Wanganui river is being investigated but little will be known about it for two years; and it seems more than ever apparent that much patient work will be needed before geothermal steam at Wairekei and similar regions will add usefully to the North Island's power supply.

It can hardly be expected that this will dispose of all opposition to the Cook Strait cable, for much of this is founded on emotion rather than economics. Objection on the ground that the South Island's power “ belongs ” to the South Island is, of course, unsound in principle, for the Cook Strait cable involves nothing more radical than transferring power from one part of New Zealand to another, exactly as transmission lines over land do. But even insular critics will eventually be silenced by appreciation of the benefits that will come to the South Island from the expenditure here of the bulk of the money that is to be devoted to hydroelectric development in the years ahead.