ELECTRIC POWER.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 848, 24 March 1903, Page 3

ELECTRIC POWER.

(Christchurch Press.)

Mr Alio, whose genial presence and electric energy have done so much during the last two or three weeks to kindle a glow of sympathetic interest in the public mind on the subject oi transmission of power, has now returned to Wellington, having first raised the hopes oi the Dunedin people almost to fever pitch by telling them that in the Waipori scheme “ they have one of the cheapest and best financial schemes that have been worked out in electrical transmission, and it should he. a financial success." We shall remember Mr Allots visit, if only lor his cheery optimism and lightning calculations. It has undoubtedly been ot benefit in arousing the public to the importance of electrical transmission of power, and in directing attention to the leading sources of supply that seem to be availa _c for this purpose. Something more is required, however, before the public can, with any show of reason, be asked to find the money for any of the ventures' proposed. We have already suggested that the other engineers who, it is understood, arc to be engaged by the Government, ; should be given sufficient time to make a detailed examination into each scheme, so that they may, he able to report upon it in such a way as to command the public confidence. So far as the Waimakariri and Rakaia are concerned, it would be well, we think, if the City Council were 1 to prepare for the visit of the engineers by getting ready all available I information that can be obtained from local knowledge of the rivers named. In particular, they ought

to be armed with details of the special difficulties which have to be faced in the undertaking, since it is evident that any report prepared without a knowledge of those difficulties must he practically valueless. On the other hand, if the public know that these difficulties have been fully laid before the visiting engineers, and the latter are able to show how these arc to be overcome, it will be

possible, with some confidence, to go to the ratepayers with a scheme. A letter which we publish from a country resident, who knows the Rakaia well, shows how essential it is that any engineer who visits the locality should have the full benefit of the experience of those on the spot. The cheery optimism of the kind which is invaluable in drawing up a prospectus would be out of place in a ease in which the ratepayers are to be asked to find a quarter of a million or more, to be secured as a perpetual charge upon their properties, tlie interest on which will have to he met whether the undertaking is a financial success or not. What the ratepayers have a right to expect in such a ease is that the best expert advice available shall be engaged to report on the scheme, and that the report shall he based on a full knowledge of the local circumstances^