SHAG POINT STATION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 212, 2 June 1920, Page 7

SHAG POINT STATION

SITE OF NEW POWER-HOUSE MAYOR'S JUSTIFICATION OF COUNCIL'S DECISION. About two-thirds of the distance between the Kilbirnie Recreation Ground and the Miraniar Wharf (going east), at the head of Evans Bay, is a low-lying point or promontory of rocks, which divides the curve of tho bead of the bay roughly into two sections. This is Shag Point, and the site of tho new power station which is to supply Wellington, with current both for its tramways and electric lighting in the future—to what extent depends on the hydro-electric power schemes of the Government as affecting Wellington. In the course of a conversation with the Mayor (Mr. ,T. P. Luke) yesterday lie stated that, in his judgment, the council had done tho right thiug in voting for the new power-house nt Evans Bay, and there was no room for any other opinion, to his mind, by anyone who had been into the-whole scheme thoroughly, and who had the imagination to seo the Wellington' of to-nioi'row.

"Look at the position fairly," said Mr. Luke; . "ll'angahno promises 9000 kilowatts. As it is at present, wo Deed nearly 7000 kilowatts for the city altogether, and as Waikaremoana is many years away, and the demand for energy ■s'ill be growing steadily, it is absolutely necessary, to bo on the safe side, that wo should have an efficient stand-by to cover a bigger peak-load than may be required on present-day calculations, and this, haw plant at Evans Bay is going to give ■as that stand-by.

"It is inconceivable'to mo that tho Harris Street power-house should remain in existence for all time, besmirching the centre of the business portion of the citv. I?or ono reason alone that should not be—the land is far too valuable to reserve for a power-house which may only be in use three months in the year or during an occasional emergency. The building of the power-house on a bit of waste land away out at Evans Bay would give those two valuable blocks of land to the city on which the two powerhouses stand. Then when you think of the Harris Street station, you have to bear in mind its cost from the standpoint of coal-handling. Coal has to bo brought from tho ship's side in drays, deposited in heaps in yards, and then shifted again to the furnace dumps aa required. At Evans Bay the coal will be unloaded into trucks which will run round the foreshore, and deposit tho coal iust where it can be conveniently fed to tho automatic stokers.

"At Shag Point some five or sis acres of land can be very easily reclaimed at no great expense, and there you have a solid foundation for your engines and machinery—a rock bottom. And, furthermore, whilst the power-station will bo set apart from other buildings or setlenient. it will lie pretty nearly in the centre of Wellington of twenty-five years hence. It does not need any great vision to see that tho Mirnmar peninsula is bound to be closely settled in the not' Very far distant future. Indeed, were materials -arid labour available at moderate rates there would havo been a great deal of building going on over that wav. Viewing the whole question by and large, I feel convinced that tho council is doing the right thing, and that time will prove it."