POWER FROM MANGAHAO

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 50, 22 November 1919, Page 8

POWER FROM MANGAHAO

LEAGUE . NOT SATISFIED

By Telegraph—Special Correspondent.' Palmerston North, November 21. The Mangahao Hydro-electric Power. League has issued a circular to local bodies urging the setting up of a board of experts charged witli tlie duty of constructing, maintaining, and distributing electrical energy from hydro-electric sources. The league's circular timiesi--"We desiro tho provision and supply of hydro-electric pqwer nuule a separata department for the following reasons {') It has been shown by experience that the present method of carrying aut large public works is unnecessarily dilatory and "wasteful, too much being attempted and too little finished, e.g., East Coast and olher railways. (2) Under the present system parochial politicians havo too great, an influence and no attempt is made to co-ordinate national needs. (3) The methods at present in use, are too elow and cumbersome; for instance, j three months ago it was decided to cut timber for accommodation houses at Mangahao on the s-ito of the works, hut so far tenders for the supply of sawmilling machinery are only now closing, the work being badly hampered for the want of accommodation, which cannot bo available for anothor four or five months. Such methods as these tend to discourage the technical staff nnd lead to inefficiency and unnecessary delays. (4) There is a great need for more adaptation to tho times. At present the work is being hampered because wages are based on 12s. per day, an altogetlur insufficient remuneration, and one considered below what is being paid by local bodies for road work, consequently there is grave dissatisfaction. (5) The work is so im. portant and necessary to the welfare of the national life that it should be recognised by placing it under the contra! of a separate head. Those reasons, and olhers which could be given, inve forced your committee to the conclusion that only by getting the construction work put under a. board of competent engineers and accountants, with its own staff and a Minister, of course, at the head, can we hope, to get tlie work < arried out with promptitude. The staff themselves would put the work through in three years if given a clTance, but the present 'red tape' methods are tying their hands."