MR. SEMPLE'S VIEWS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 145, 23 June 1930, Page 10

MR. SEMPLE'S VIEWS

INSPECTION OF THE WORK

THE HUSH-HUSH POLICY

Mr. E. Semple, who with, Mr. B. M'Keen, M.P., and Mr. W. Lee Martin, M.P., visited Arapuni at the week-end, to-day emphasised his opinion, recently expressed, that the troubte is! so serious as to warrant Parliament ■setting up a Commission of Inquiry composed of outside' experts. : . .., ■■ On arrival at Arapuni, said Mr. Seinple, they consulted Mr. Rabone, the engineer in'charge, who said that he had been given instructions to show them over the works, but that he could give no information. '' ■' .' , "In other words, we discovered that Arapuni was a dumb settlement, and this, of course, put us at a great disadvantage". We had to find out everything for ourselves. However, in^ company with the bngineer, we spent Saturday inspecting the work. We discovered that the. main crack was traced K'O&ft parallel; with the spillway channel, and that there, were/other smaller, cracks running from this crack across the spillway? dam.' One of these, cracks can be traced .right to' the penstock tunnel, where-the concrete: is broken.; On .top of., the/.narrow, strip of .land through which the penstock tunnels arc driven the transformer station is built, and on inspection we discovered that the,joints in the coucreto floor had been opened, ■...which; suggests. that the earth movement affected not only the lower portion'of the narrow'neck of land, but also reached the top. ..-■ .'',■,. :''l: have been informed -that- when they were pumping the water out of the danijthat feeds the turbines through the penstock, tunnels, and when the water, was reduced to about four feet, the whole lot disappeared J through cracks, which confirms the opinion expressed by mo previously that the, process of percolation of tho, water, working down to the old river level, which is llOft lower, has created underground cavities. The blasting operations when the penstocks tunnels were. being driven, tho 'breathing' action of the water sucking in to the turbines, which naturally created friction, and the vibration of tho turbines assisted towards the ultimate disaster, but the main factor was the water percolating through porous country with no foundation other than soft pumice. EROSION BELOW SPILLWAY. "When I visited Arapuni eighteen months ago I stood on tho brink of the cliff where the water was surging over down to the submerged forest to tho old river-bed below. To my amazement, on this last visit I found that this country has been washed away for a distance of ten chains. The cliff where the water surged over until the diversion- tunnel was opened and the upper course was drained is approximately 100 feet high and at its foot a boil pool, or miniature lake, has been created another 30 to 50 feet deep. I asked the cngineef on'the job to give me the exact depth of the lake, but he refused, but when pressed said that-it was at least 30 feet deep; I am confident that it is deeper. This proves conclusively that the further down,'the rottcner tho foundation. "When tho river was pouring down the upper channel it. was working its way back at tho rate of ten chains in eighteen months; it has now seventeen chains further to go before it reaches tho spillway, which would mean the collapse of the whole scheme; but, as is generally known, this action was stopped entirely when the river was turned back into its did lower course. A hopper has been erected near the boil pool, and it is proposed to pour concrete into this gulf without any proved foundation. This job' will eat up thousands of pounds, and then there is no guarantee that'the job is done. I do not think that concrete could possibly resist tho constant force of water surging over this cliff, but this problem is separate and distinct from the one above, which is more serious ia every respect. Tho fact is that there is no real foundation, and that the whole scheme is in jeopardy. , SHAIT NEAR POWER HOUSE. "I also inspected a shaft that is being sunk now alongsido tho power house. ■It is now 25 feet deep, and its purposo is to ascertain what foundations thcro arc below the power house or what .faults, if any, are below. I wont down this shaft, and took samples of the strata. At the bottom there is soft brown pumice, which you can crumble in your fingers. This I propose to put on exhibition • when the House meets. "I Was informed that during the excavation work for the foundation tor the power house an underground spring was encountered, and that 1500 tons of concrete were poured in to stop 'the flow. As a matter of .fact, the water was merely diverted to another course through the weaker strata. 'If this statement is true, and I have every reason to believe it is, it is simply staggering, and needs no further comment. POLICY OF HUSH-HUSH. ','1 cannot understand the hush-hush policy of the Government, if it came from tho Government, for I have reason to beliove that the recommendation did not originate with the Minister. My colleagues ,and I went to Arapuni not on a political mission,' but because we are- concerned about the expenditure of public money, and we wanted to know whether we would be justified in voting any more money to Arapuni, which we felt all along was a wild cat scheme. To refuse to give us any information regarding recent happenings or general difficulties encountered was not only unfair to us, but the country generally, particularly if this instruction was issued from an officer of tho Department. TUNNELLING NOT DANGEROUS. "It has been staled that I had almost a mandate from the Government: this is positively ridiculous. I vohintocrod to inspoct tho prospecting tunnel because tho work had been stopped by tho Department as it had been alleged that tho tunnol was dangerous. The Minister of Public Works was kind enough in a wiro to suggest that ho was informed that I was visiting Arapuni and that I proposed to inspect the tunnel, and that ho would take notice of any additional safeguards that I might suggest. Tho New Zealand Workers' Union also knew that I was going, and was quite willing that I'should pass an opinion. With Messrs. M'Keen and Martin I inspected the tunnel, and camo to the conclusion that there was no real danger. _ That opinion was conveyed to the Minister in the following wire: We visited Arapuni yesterday and inspected tunnels, in which, to our mind, there is no apparent danger now that water pressuro is off surrounding country. To take tho necessary safety precautions wo suggest, that twclvo-foot bore, bo kept iv lead of * face. Mr. Rabono approves suggestion. K. Semple, E. M'Keen. "It has also been suggested that my opinion upon Arapuni lacks weight because I am riot a geologist or an ongineer. I havo had varied and sufficient experience sinco boyhood of this class ,of work to permit me to express an

intelligent opinion. If the . selecting of the Arapuni site was due to the recommendations from theso gentlemen, then all I havo to say God forbid that ever I should be associated with theso learned gentlemen in any of their j undertakings. "I am more convinced thau ever) after my visit that Parliament should not sink another penny in Arapuni until a complete investigation has been carried out. One of the first things that Parliament should do is to appoint a committee of the House, representative of all sides, to take charge and conduct this inquiry, with power to appoint outside experts and to call for evidence. In order to test the feeling of the House, I propose to ask tho Minister as soon as tho House meets to tako action along these lines."