WAIKAREMOANA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 156, 21 March 1918, Page 8

WAIKAREMOANA

THE HYDBO-ELECTRIC LEAGUE'S EXPEDITION. Members of the Wellington City Council wlni look-part in the expedition to Luke \V;iili;ii-(?'inonnn, organised hy the Hyih-o-Kloctrii; Lrairup of llawke's Buy, rotiit-iipcl to Wellington yesterday. Councillor \Y. H.".l\ Barber, seen by a Dominion rnportor. said that they had a very rough, bill, interesting journey. Owing to the hud state of tlm roads they liad tn make thp, trip hetween Napier and Wniroa and vireversa hy steamer, and had a very rough experience in crossing Hawks's Bay. They'had a full day (Saturday last) at the lake, and on Sunday morning most of them jonrneyrd to' the outfall of tile laka—the point at which it was proposed to erpnt the power plant, and were one nud all greatly impressed with the. rast volume of wafer that wa? rnnliing to waste in a roaring torrent. .Councillor Barber said he had seen most of the waterfalls in-New Zealand, but none were of the enormous size (in point of volume of water) of the outfall from Waikaremonna. There was not one distinct fall from a single height to a level, .but a series of rnar■j'nc falls representing perhaps a fall of nhout 800 ft. in a quarter of n mile. The lake itself was »n enormous sheet of water as biff as Wellington harbour, and its potentialities as a source of electric power were obviously nroat, whilst from a scen'o point of view it was a very beautiful spot. He. had toured most parts of New Zealand hv motor-car, but the wofst road .he had fi'pr ventured upon was that between Wairoa nnd the lake, made so by the recent rainstorms itrthe district. ' The party left AVairoa again on Monday morning, and had they not got away then tho chances were that they would lie still held no there, as the big storm which affected the whole of the coast would have made the bar unworkable.

Councillor Barber supplemented his. remarks by statins: that when he passed through Palmerston North at 10 a.m. yesterday it was hailing, and there_had been heavy rain throughout the district.