Benmore Lift Rises 300ft

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31006, 11 March 1966, Page 3

Benmore Lift Rises 300ft

N.Z.P.A. Briefs

The highest passenger lift in New Zealand is now in use at Benmore. It rises to a height of 300 ft, the equivalent of about 30 storeys. The lift carries power station attendants from the power station at the foot of the huge dam to the head gates, which regulate the flow through the penstocks. Installing the lift was a difficult job because the lift

shaft had to be tunnelled out of rock.

The shape of the dam meant that a tunnel about as long as the lift shaft itself had to be bored into the rock against which the dam is built. The shaft was then excavated. The Benmore lift will eventually be dwarfed by another at Manapouri. This lift will be installed to carry attendants between the control room and the powerhouse at West Arm. It will fall 700 ft. KEPT IN PORT Winds of 30 to 40 knots in Foveaux Strait yesterday kept the Bluff oyster fleet in port for the fourth day in succession. Stocks of oysters in Invercargill are reported to be low. One retailer said that it was unlikely that any uncooked oysters would be now available. The present break is the first since the season opened on February 15.

WELL-OFF AGED The Auckland city mission was launching a scheme to cater for elderly people who were infirm and lonely but too well off to be admitted to the mission’s Selwyn village, said the Anglican city missioner, Canon D. Caswell.

The residents will meet all costs involved in running the home. It is expected that besides a weekly rental, each resident will make a down payment of £2OOO, plus an in-terest-free loan of £4OOO while there. „ The mission has bought a large house set in three acres at St. Heliers. 20-HOUR TOW The first raft of four 120 ft long concrete pipes towed from Auckland to Whangarei for the Bream Bay power station arrived at Urquharts Bay in Whangarei Harbour about 10.30 a.m. yesterday. The tow had taken about 20 hours in good conditions behind the tug Sea Toiler. The raft, which is 40 feet wide, will be joined by four others in floating storage at Urquharts Bay before the contractors begin laying them.

HEALTH COURSE

The South Pacific Commission’s executive officer of health, Dr. G. Laison, will arrive in Wellington on Monday to discuss arrangements for a training course in health and medical statistics for medical officers from the Pacific Islands and territories. The course will be held at Wellington from April 18 to May 13. Fifteen practitioners will

attend the course, for which New Zealand will provide five tutors. Another tutor will come from Australia, and one from the world health organisation. ENGINE TROUBLE Engine trouble on the Rangitoto between Tahiti and Panama will delay her arrival in London by three days and will cost the New Zealand Shipping Company £9OOO. The ship was due in London today, said a company spokesman. ROAD TOLL The road-toll for March was six, the Transport Department reported yesterday afternoon. At this time last March the toll was 17. The death of another February accident victim brings the total for last month tb 32. The total for the year so far is now 73, compared with 110 for the corresponding period of last year. EXPANDING AID A link should be shown to exist between war service and the death of a former serviceman before Heritage services were offered, the secretary of the movement (Mr D. M. P. Hay) said yesterday. The annual meeting on Wednesday discussed in committee the question of expanding the assistance programme to include other categories not included in the narrow original field of assistance.

Most families qualified for assistance after the grant of a war pension, but it was felt branches should be free to accept other families with dependent children when there was evidence of some connexion between war service and the death of a former serviceman, he said.