AT LAST!

Gisborne Times, Volume LXI, Issue 9853, 4 November 1924, Page 5

AT LAST!

. AIANGAHAO SCHEAIE BBOUGHT TO FRUITION.

POWER TURNED ON. REPRESENTATIVE GATHERING AT SHANNON. CURRENT EXPECTED IN WELLINGTON BY NM\S. AIR COATES APPEALS TO POWER BOARDS,

WELLINGTON, Nov. 3. The Mangahao hydro-electric development scheme mas formally opened to-day in fine weather. The func±ion was attended by Mr. Massey, Mr. >Coates (Minister for Public Works), and large a number of members of both Houses, and representatives of power boards and other local bodies, Sir. F. T. Kissell (Chief Electrical Engineer), and a large gathering of the public. At the power station, after the ■opening addresses,- Mr. Massey was presented, with a golden key and Mr. Coates with a cigarette, case in conn memorntion of the occasion. Then, at Mr. Massey’s request, Mr. Coates turned on the power, and the machinery worked without a hitch. Electricity from this source is immediately available to the Horcwhenua Power Board and will subsequently be supplied to all other power boards in the district. The town of Shannon was gaily decorated in celebration of the occasion and a banquet was hold there after the ceremony at Mangahao. In his speech at the power station, Mr. Massey congratulated the ratepayers on the practical completion of such an important work. It was another milestone on the road over which New Zealand was steadily if not rapidly travelling. It was the duty of the country to go on with similar works t ill everv industry a rad every household was supplied with electricity. Stations at Waikaremoana and .Arapuni would also be operating in the future and eventually the whole of the island would be reticulated. It was hoped the power from Mangahao' would be turned on in Wellington by Christmas, and later other power boards would absorb some of the supply. It was no longer considered that it was the proper thing for the Government to monopolise the ■supply of electric power. It was now eon-i(lured perfectly • satisfactory for the distribution to- be undertaken by electric power boards which, he hoped, would not lie slow in taking full advantage of the opportunity offering at Afnr.galino. Air. Coates announced that- the sta 7 tiou would turn out about 24.000 hor.’e-power. This might not be available immediately, but would be by the time it w.as required.- The cost of the head works and generating machinery amounted to £1,000,000, and there "would be an additional expenditure of £1,000,000 in transmission. Of this amount £-109,000 wuld lie charged to the Waikaremoana scheme, when ft was brought into operation. The Government was prepared to generate power for tlve boards in the district as scow as those boards were prepared for that power. The Mangahao scheme was the biggest yet developed in the North Island, but Arapuni -would, when completed, be bigger, and so would the Lake Coleridge scheme ‘iri the South Island. The Public Works Deportment liad reason to be proud that it had a staff that could tackle such a. task as Mangahao. It was necessary that such schemes •should be undertaken by the G oven-a-ment and the power supplied 1 , as it -was, through public bodies, beer.ai.se -under the control of private enterprises it would be found that thickly populated areas would be the only places where povoer w.as available, whereas the Government sought to place it withili the vouch of everyone who chose to take it. The scheme ■was the. most difficult ever undertaken in New Zealand, and of its kind was . the most difficult, m Australasia. The power was derived by shortening the path towards the sea of the Man-ga-lino branch of the Manawatu river by diverting it through tho main ridge of the Tararua range. liv 19C6 Mr. P. S. Hay. one-time Engineer-in-;-Chief of tho Public Works Department, made surveys in the. locality and investigated tlie possibilities, but the present scheme was selected, and 'developed by Air. I<\ T. Al. Kissel, mow Chief Electrical Engineer. At the ei.'d *of 1915 detail surveys were commenced. and early in 1919 Sir A\illiani Fraser pushed ahead the work .after a.u arduous trip t.o it by way of ••a survey track. The actual start was made in May in the same year. The 'completion of the work was one of the .monuments to the memory of Air. Fraser. After paying a tribute to the '•efforts of tho late Lawcrer.ee Birks, of the Public Works Department, Mr. Coates stated that all employees had been loyal to the Government and had done a good year’s work, in recognition of which the Prime-Minister had decided to grant them a slight increase in wages for the next task undertaken. 'The Alinister concluded by asking -power boards to get on with their re- - ticula-tion. so that the Government could at o'nc-e get a. return for. the money it had spent in developing the scheme. At the banquet following, Air. Alfssey, replying to the toast of. ‘‘'The Prime Alinister.” stated that some people thought the country was borrowing too much money outside the ■country, but when works such as Mangahao were to bo carried out it was necessary to borrow money. The . -country had no difficulty so far in raising loans, and had been able to obtain advances at more favorable terms than those granted for any other country in the Empire. Air. Contes said this was the first :scheme a British Government had attempted to carry out with a voltage ■of 110,000. The contract had been) let to a British firm ar.’d had been soundly fulfilled. The power boards had been a great, help co-operating with the Government in every way possible in order to ensure the success of the scheme. . Ho thought manufacturing industries would fellowl. the supply of electricity in l the district, and ’farming, tire greatest industry of the country, would be greatly benefitted. Electricity would not do everything, but it would make life more easy. —P.A.