HYDRO-ELECTRICITY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 134, 3 December 1929, Page 6

HYDRO-ELECTRICITY

BIG- MANAPOURI-SOUNDS SCHEME . Important developments of .the. hydroelectric . resources of the West Coast Sounds country ma .y be undertaken subject to certain conditions. Mr. H. P. Gibbs, an eminent hydro-electric engineer, has just returned from an inspection of the country between Lake Manapouri and Deep Cove, Smith Sound, paying particular attention to the area covered by the licence granted by the Government to the New Zealand Sounds Hydro-Electric Concessions, Ltd. Mr. Gibbs has. already reported on .the district in brief by cable and in full-in writing to his principal the American Cyanamid Company, Incorl ported, of New York, with which is associated Cyanamid Products, Ltd., London. S t, he £P tlon h£ d fey tfle New Zealand Hydro-Electric Concessions Company is token up and work proceeds at Deep Oove, it will be done by a company tormed and registered under British Company Law; and it .would--be-taken up with the idea;.of elect?o-chemical and'electro-met-allurgical industries. But the existing condi-" tions of those industrial arts are changing practically daily, and therefore it is impossible at the moment to make any statement as to just what lines would be taken up. Mr. Gibbs, however, said he was favourably impressed by what he had seen of the hydro-electric possibilities of the area he had traversed between Lake Manapouri and Deep Cove. There was no doubt, he said, of the possibility of the extraction of nitrogen from the atmosphere, but that would be but one of many applications of the latent power available.

The licence granted by the Government to the New Zealand Sounds Hydro-Electric Concessions, Ltd., is dated 12th January, 1926, and it is authorised to harness water power, from Helena Falls, Livia Paver, Huntleigh River, Stella Burn, or any other waters discharging into Smith Sound to the aggregate extent of 50,000 h.p. continuous; also to convey waters from Lake Manapouri (by way of a tunnel of about 6% miles to be constructed) to Deep Cove to generate 250,000 h.p. The site proposed and selected for a great generating station is in Deep Cove on flat land and about 20 miles from the open sea by way of Smith Sound into Doubtful' Sound. At Deep Cove, within one mile of the ■ selected generating station site, a wharf is proposed with a depth. o£ 40 feet suitable for the loading of ocean-going steamers.-