HYDRO-ELECTRICITY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 215, 9 June 1920, Page 7

HYDRO-ELECTRICITY

l THE MANGAHAO POWER | DIVISION I l ! (By Coleman Phillips.) The. Minister's reply to the deputa- > tion of Thursday lost (based, of course, ' on the advice of his engineers) is so un--1 fair to Wairarapa that I must briefly refer to it. The following is the division: H.P. Wellington City ...._ 12,000 Hutt Valley - 8,000 Otaki 1,20(i Shannon ; ' 2,600 Bunnythnrpe — 3,800 Dannevirke _ - „ 1,400 24,000 : and nothing for Wairarapa. This • division luito traverses Mr. Parry's scheme undor n'hich we were • to have received our fair' share. If i Wairarapa. (merely for the desire to ■ spend ,£IBO,OOO on the Waiohine scheme, becauso it has entered upon it) cares to lie down and take its beating humbly by being left out in the cold there is. an end of the matte'. 1 . Tho engineers were quite right to treat the district's wants, 1 with' Contempt, na Its representative men have steadily thrown Mr. Parry's excellent scheme to the s winds and persevered in constructing tho wild-cat collapsible Waiohine 130 ft. dam (or is it to l>e 150 ft. high?), a most dangerous undertaking in an eaTthqnakv country. I have known manyunwiso things dono by our local bodies in the past, but none quite so unnecessary is this. It will be noticed from the Minister's reply to the depuration that Otaki and Shannon are not in a position to use the 3800 h.p. allotted to them. Wairarapa, however, i 9 not to get a single hoTso-power of this unwanted supply. Wo can therefore conclude that the Public Works Department is deadly opposed to Wairarapa's wants and also to Mr. Parry's scheme. We are given liberty to raise i>s much money os we like locally and enter upon any unwise and costly, soheme (which the Department is bound to approve now) so rtmg as we do not claim anything from Mnngahao. But I have not tho slightest confidence -in our present Public Works Department approval of any local scheme, as it is most clear that Mr. Parry turned tharn all down. Our Public. Works Department evidently k'uows more than Mr. Parry, which is absurd. Arguments have been used to mo (in support of the Waiohine dam) that it would be too far to bring tha Mnngahao supply from Shannon round by Woodvillo to Masterton. Also, that thero are difficulties in the way of'bringing the powor across direct via Mount Holdsworth'. I would point out: (1) That tho proposed Waiohine dam is close to Mount Holdsworth. (2) That tho power can be brought south about, viz., across the Akatarawa to Kaitoke and down tho old coach road to Featherston and Masterton. This route would not bo much furthor than Wellington City is from Shannon or Dannevirke is. Why, thon, should the Wairarapa be left out? (3) That as the current passes Woodvil!*, Wairarapa should surely get its supply. Our Publio Works engineers evidently intend keeping to Mr. Parry's scheme 60 far as Wanganui is concernod. Wanganui is ,to get nothing from the Mnngahao. As to harnessing the Waikaromoana—that part of tho scheme is, of course, absolutely beyond the energies of the Public Works Department. Labour and material are altogether too scaree for that. It will take tho Department at least ten years oven to. enter upon that soheme. Tho local bodies .on tho East Coast are all requested to put in more wiM-cat collapsible dams (which the Department will approve), as it is considered so muoh easier for them to /find labour and material than tho Publio Works engineers. Moreover, it will be a shorter distance to carry tho current ovorywhere locally; quite overlooking tho fact that Mr. Parry's experienco specially advised Waikaremoann and Arapunl (two large generating'stations) as against all these local Bchomes.- Why should wo thus throw over Mr. Parry? It is as bad as if the Wellington City Council resolved to depend on tho advice of ito assistant engineer, not on its chief engineer (Mr. Morton). I strongly odviso Gisborno and Hawke's Bay to stick to Mr. Parry's scheme, and not be led away. Time wad, of 1 course, when the Department constructed all our railways. Now thero is none of that work to speak of going on, and tho whole energy of tho Department is given to find 130 to 150 men i'or the Mangahao. It looks to mo (making fall allowance for the labour and material shortago) that dry rot has completely set in, and our Public Works Department is anything but what.it used to be. So far as I know at Thursday's deputation to the Minister no one epefe up for Wairarapa. Mr. A.D. M'Lcod was not there (he was attending another meeting). Mr, Sykes was there, but said nothing. Mr. Jackson (Mayor of Masterto.i) asked a few words as to Wairarapa's wants, but that was all this great district did in insisting upon its fair share under- Mr. Parry's scl-eme. It was accepted as Gospel that our, present Public Works engineers know more than Mr. Parry, and our etiso wont by default. The Waiohino proposal Mill bo carried, I suppose, and tho district saddled with another blunder, moro costly, howeveri than is bargained for, as in my opinion (judging from the Hutt River dam estimates) the Waiohino scliemo will cost nearer .£300,000 than .£200,000. The game with all the local schemes which the people will, of courso, vole for, so disgusted are they with the coal miners and watersidere' behaviour. (The Hutt dam scheme is estimated to cost JM.OOO, not .£H)O/iOO.) As to time, tho Mangahao supply will lx> ready eighteen months to two yeart before that from the Waiohino. I also venture to point out to the Public Works Department that tho distance from tHo Mangahao to j/lastorton (via Jyvjtdko) is about', 70 miles, and from A\ moiiino to Masterton 25 miles (theso estimates subject to , correction). Tho dintanee from Shannon to Wellington is about 70 miles. ~ Now if the supply is good enough for Wellington, why ; is it not "qually so for Masterton? Why can Wairarapa not reoeivo, say, 2500 h.p. out, of the 3800 Otaki and Shannon do not want? Could any subdivision be more anfair from ono of our own rivers? I think Wairanipji should rise ns 0110. man and protest against it. That I have been fairly on right lines in this matter, and the Public Works Department and Messrs. J. C. Ccoper and T. V. Mooro on wrong ones, . is proved by tho facts: (1) That I have always said the oity should not get more than half tho Mangahao supply (which -if, only gets); (2) that tho city slould go in for 11 full and capable steam electric plant (which it is rightly doing now) until Wniknromoana is harnessed. But to t,et that dono it is necessary to get Mr. Parry to send us out one or two good men. HydroelMtrio power is the. most important thing tho Dominion now requires, and our wisest courso is not to trust the work to railway engineers, but to import one or two olectrlo engineers for Hie general good. W ohavo had enough wpfiie in our harbour works not to mako s similar sot of costly blunders in Irydrooloctrio instalbtlon. «