The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, MARCH 16, 1903. ELECTRIC TRACTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 841, 16 March 1903, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, MARCH 16, 1903. ELECTRIC TRACTION.

Wc would urge upon the Borough Council to at once seek, through the member lor the district, to obta'in a visit from Mr Alloo, the expert who is now reporting on schemes for utilising the water power of New Zealand rivers for generating electricity. 1L has already been stated that the lluka Kails would supply ail the motive power required for this district, but wc have valuable water falls nearer at hand than the Jrluka, and certainly while the expert is in New Zealand there is every reason why his opinion should be obtained by Lhe Government. The present may well be termed the electric age and an article which recently appeared in the “Idler,” from the pen of Mr Frank Fayant, has been attracting much attention. He shows that electricity may be generated at almost any distance from the place where the machinery is to be operated. In California, a waterfall in the Sierras runs the street cars in Oakland, fully 180 miles distant. The writer states that the most daring electric railway. venture is that in the Valteliina —in'the Italian Alps. He goes on to prove that the pioneer electric railway has replaced the old steam railway. He writes “ This remarkable railway, which extends from Lecco up to Cniavenna, with a long spur running eastward fram Colico to Sondrio, up the Valteliina, is now in full operation. It has passenger trains and goods trains, slow trains and fast trains, just like an ordinary

railway, but electricity tabes the place of steam. Powerful electric locomotives, not unlike those in Loudon's Twopenny Tube, haul the goods trains, while motor-cars haul the passenger trains. lViile-a-minute speed is obtained. Not a pound of coal is burned to drive the trains. An Alpine stream is the source of all the power. A canal cut through the rocks of the mountains conveys the water to a point nearly lUOit above the power station. There the water rushes down headlong through a feedpipe to the mighty turbines that drive the electric generators. The current, at the deadly voltage of 21,000, flows off in copper conductors along the miles of railway, to be led from overhead wires to the trains. Even in the train motors, a current of 3UUU volts is used, but every device has been adopted to minimise the danger of feeding a high voltage alternating current directly to the trains. At first, the Italian Government was unfavorable ; but a few weeks ago Signor Valenzana, the Italian Minister for Railways, inspected the railway, and declared his readiness to grant permission to extend the line to Milan; also that the success of this line foreshadowed the electrification of the entire ftalian railway system.” After much further interesting information on the general subject Mr Fayant gives a word picture of the coming electric age in England, and his statements- nowadays seem more likely of fulfilment than were the romantic prophecies of Jules Verne in his day. “When electric railways girded the country,” wr tes Mr Fayant, “we will not have to bother our heads about railway guides. There will be short trains and many of them. If we are going to Brighton or Liverpool we will simply go to the railway station, enter an "electric car marked ‘Brighton, 1 or whatever the town is anti

speed away. The electric service will be almost as continuous as it now is on the Twopenny Tube. There will be (treat central power stations, some of them at the pit mouths of the coal mines, and enormous quantities of electricity will be generated to run railway trains, tram lines, and the machinery of workshops. Heavy copper cables will carry the energy many miles away from the central stations and these will lx* tapped just as water or gas mains are. lclectric power will be so cheap that anyone who has any work to be done will make use of electricity. It will lie the universal servant, always at hand to respond to the touch of the button. ’ tor railway purposes, the people of this (listrici will no doubt, for the time being, be quite content if the Government pushes on with the work of railway construction on the old lines of steam traffic, but the progress that is being made with electricity, the fact that an expert is now travelling tlie colonv under engagement with the Government, and the knowledge that in this district there are such splendid river sources in the highlands, should make us eager to obtain a report from the expert. If this is to he attained there should he no delay. It is necessary that representations should he made almost immediately to the Government, and this duty would properly fall either on the Borough Council as a whole, or the Committee appointed some time ago to deal with the question of electricity