SUPPLY OF POWER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19980, 4 July 1939, Page 2

SUPPLY OF POWER

NEW TEKAPO STATION TUNNEL A MILE LONG A hydro-electric power plant, it has been decided by the Public Works Department, will be built on the Waitaki River, a mile from the existing Tekapo township. The lake will also be dammed for water conservation purposes for the Kurow station. The expectation, is that the driving of the tunnel from the lake to the gorge and the building of the powerhouse will begin within 12 months. Detailed surveys, shaft sinking, and exploratory drives at the outlet of Lake Tekapo are being expedited, said the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple, in an interview on Tuesday, so that the building of the new power station could be pushed ahead.

Details of the generating capacity of the station have not been completed. W’ater from the lake for the turbines will be carried through a tunnel a mile long. The driving of the tunnel will be done before the dam is built at the present outlet of the lake, 'the waters of which will be conserved in summer and released for winter use by the Kurow station.

A request that when the huge dam and tunnelling schemes were begun the accommodation of the 200 employees should be arranged on townplanning lines, that the houses should be of a type which would permit their use later in a planned scheme for the Tekapo village, and that a recreation hall should be provided, was made to the Minister at Rangitata by the Tekapo Planning Commission. “We will co-operate with you 100 per cent, because we want to help to develop the district,” replied Mr, Semple. He gave the deputation an assurance that the workers’ homes would be of suitable design and construction. They would also be built in a manner that would make lasy their shifting to 'the village proper later.