THE NEW ZEALAND CLUB.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1191, 28 July 1911, Page 3

THE NEW ZEALAND CLUB.

? MR. E. PARRY ENTERTAINED. A luncheon was held by the New Zenland Club yesterday at tho Y.M.C A. rooms, about fifty members attending. Ihe guest of the club was Mi\ E. Parrv rto to raentlj arrived from England o take charge of the hydro-electrical proposals of tho Government. .Mr. 1\ C <? rc .?j d eut) presided, and briefly iutioduced Mr. larrv,Iho guest referred with pleasure to the coidial welcome lie had received fu New nn£L D -i 'J 119 ! r e ' liar ks to them would nrcessarilj be brief .ond general, because of certain regulations regarding Civil Ser- \ tits— -( hi lighter) all il, ho thought, rightly so. His ntt?n(ion had been called to regulations on the morning after his arrival here. However, without a breach of them lie thought ho could say that Acw Zealand from..what he had already observed seemed to be very well endowcil for hyu'O-electric power installations. New Zealand had a constant and abundant auc ' *.' 12 sourccs of power were within easy distance of tho centres of population. There were also larger supplies to supplement the smaller sources if necessary. As far as he had seen, the work would be simple and development of the power easy. The initial outlay would be, comparatively, very small, for tho configuration of tho country was such a-s to enable the expenditure to keep pace with the demand. This was important because electrical power undertakings usually took some time to mature and pay their way. If they earned expenses in three years they did very well. Here, a very big capital expenditure would not bo required at; the outset. He considered it. a good , thing to have the Stale in charge of these affairs. He citcrl two undertakings with which he had been connected in England, in''which sums of £>5,000, .£IO,OOO, and .£13,000 had been spent by. successive companies in endeavouring to get a Bill through Parliament to enable them lo become operative. These private concerns also had heavy underwriting and engineering charges as a rule, and in our caso it was done by the publicservice at an economical salary. (Laughter.) He believed that electrical power .could be obtained cheaper in New Zealand than anywhere else in the world. The roads wero good for transport purpases, and tho railways far in excess of any other place, in proportion to the population. There would be no difficulty in getting the power transmitted to places j requiring it from the various installations.

A vote of thanks was accorded the speaker.