ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 December 1924, Page 2

ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY.

TARANAKI BOARD. MONTHLY MEBTING. Th© Taranaki Electric ; Power Board met at Eltham yesterday. There were present: Messrs H. G. Carman (chairman), T. R. Anderson, C. E. MeGuinSS ?n J - T f’ Ca mP b eil, W. H. Were and V\. 1.; Harkness'. ' *~ ' ; HYDRO- DEVELOPMENT. The engineers (Messrs H. W. Climie and >Son) ,reported as .follows: Main Tunnel—This tunnel is now driven 1608 feet, 577 feet having: been; driven, during,, tne month., Eariy ;: , in* the month a seam of compressed sand was met with, through which the tunnelling machine .coukl bore "as. fast as the material could be. trucked away. The greatest progress in one day was 60 feet.. During the past. :10 days -.ai seam. of papa .rock;, .carrying stone.-has-been, encountered This 'seem,, should; b© passed through before, the holidays,, ana probably compressed sand as’.' is showing in No. 2" adit, .some 20 ohains ahead, will be again met with. The tip head has been extended, and with the additional ...trucks. ’ that have, ,been landed ex s'.s. . Orari, .tlxei'e should be' no delay in getting rid of the spoil such as was the. experience last month. During the heavy rain a slip occurred; at- Nov 3-. adit and demolished theblacksmith’s shop - ,: . which.. has since been rebuilt! . : ■,. 0'.:.. ; , ■ Metal hundred -and. fifty yards of stone , and about 150 yards of. shellrpck have been .crushed apd placed on the pipe line i, road. About 350 yards of stone and gravel which hah._been .collected; will..now' be crushed. This quantity should almost complete the road. Arrangements have been made to obtain supplies of stone from the Waitara river by contract. This when crushed Will he used for concrete i work- and road maintenance. Eqi}. the* p.ipe. .liiie .anchor-,blocks : supphes of .shingle have. been, taken j.n «by motor . lorries.... when the * weather;and roads permitted. Owing to the shortage of electric power,, pending a supply from New Plymouth, it was to purchase for £l3o a Fofdson tractor to drive the' crusher; - • This - - purchase will obviate the necessity of extending the transmission Jin© two miles to: the 1 proposed: crusher site on the Waitara 1 river. v,-' ' Pipe .Line.—Tenders. will, be called this coming month for the Construction of. concrete -blocks and ; bolsters' to support the main steel .pipes. ; .. A concrete culvert has been constructed by day labour _,to. .carry,, the road, over this 50inch pipe.' . . ; .... ' * ' ,_ , ■ Qpntracts-^MessrsSexton .arid Op! have made fair' progress with the excavation 'of, the , power, house site and lower., .pipe; cline. ~The ~e po.il ,is?, being used to form an embankment over the Motukawa stream :to. give access: to' the power :Louse?; and pipe. line. Progress on the Ratapiko road deviation cannot be speeded up until - the- completion of the concrete culvert, the excavation for .which is now . almost completed. Mr. Lovgrove has made all preliminary arrangements,; and ? wifi cqmmence the concrete work immediately after the-.holidays. - - -Fair progress has been made in the work ,of enlarging and concreting the diversion tunnel at Ratapiko. This work should be completed by the end of J anuary, when the stream can be diverted and a start made with the dam embankment. The contractor for the tunnel in Downes’ property is now in about, three chains, m the' same peaty material. Unless better ground- is encountered under the-ridge a chain ahead the termination of .the contract- will have to beconsidered. ... r . The report was adopted. RETICULATION. Messrs Climie and Son reported as follows: Line Construction—The- high pressure line'has been extended from Maketawa northwards to the New Plymouth.. boro ugh? s -sub-station at Inglewood, and . coupled- to. the New Plymouth system; . The high pressure line south of Tariki has' been completed through, to Eltham via the Monmouth, Cardiff and Climie roads. Poles have been erected on Mountain road south of Eltham and, on Mangawhero road. The wires, however, cannot be erected until °7 erhan 2 in g trees are.. removed. A number of. poles foi: consumers’ services have been erected in the Tariki aiea, and a start is being made on the Salisbury road line in the north and on the Hastings road in the southern area. * New Plymouth Supply—A supply irom New Plymouth was. given at the beginning of December, and since then has supplied the Maketawa area, with the exception of temporary interrupdT to the Sale on the 13th inst. Although attempts have been, made it has been found inadvisable to couple this system tp the Tariki supplyuntil the New Plymouth system is‘earthed. He learn that this will be done this week. m to Eltham—The current from wa ? P ljt - through via Cardiff to Eltham on the 11th inst., and no faults developed till Saturday^-when a defective insulator broke down in the morning and another late in the afternoon. Fortunately these faults were located and remedied in time to permit a supPy to the public in the evening. Since then, however, another fault has developed on the Cardiff section, and has not yet been located. The alternative supply from the dairy factory was not a r il ii? ■ as - step-up transformer at the factory, though carefully dried out, broke down on Saturday afteraoo.n - It is expected that the faults m both sources of supply will be rectified to-day, and the supply maintained to consumers. The report was adopted. Commenting on the faults referred to in the report, the engineer said they had interfered: with the telephone syste™ , in New Plymouth, causing a noise which prevented the ’phone user from hearing other sounds transmitted. The -un Ua e T a y w ith faulty insulators. When these were replaced the noise ceased. Replying to Mr aHrkness, the engineer said he could not without further inquiry make a definite comparison of leticulation costs with the original' estimates. The estimates provided a good margin, which was not being exceeded. Concrete poles were, as expected, costing. about 655. This was below the cost oi iron bark, for which 64s had to, be paid at Plymouth and carriage trom there lvould incur another 15s. In some instances, however, the latter had to be used. He estimates that not more than 2000 poles were now required.

With reference to the Hastings Road below the.Eltham Road, Mr MeGuinness said he understood that on a length cf about two miles there were

property-holders prepared to take power seven- who would take light from the Board. He asked what guarantee the Board would require before underTaking;. reticulation, a -He .also'-under-stood, that; a. number of property-holders on the Lower Hunter Road still desired to be supplied,,, a • , The chairman explained that in accordance .with the Act, The Board, was required to reticulate, if those requiring installation were prepared to guarantee 20, per cent, for .five years of. the cost of construction. He further stated that, if-, on a three miles stretch power were taken for six milking plants, the Board would make -the installation, but in a case where on the last mile only one plant was situated connection could not be made. .Mr Campbell intimated that- there were probably other areas as yet not reticulated, which the. Board would .be asked to cover , ’and in view- of possible future applications, j full, consideration should be given to. the question. After further-discussion, it - was decided, on Mr .Campbell’s motion, to instruct the wiring superintendent to report periodically on applications and the amount of power .required, the Works Committee, in conjunction with the Finance Committee,' to consider reticulation of various roads. „ GENERAL. * -A copy of the agreement between the Board and the.. Stratford Borough Council, with reference to the supply of electrical energy was received. Com-; mencing in March,. 1926, the agreement' provides for a 10 years’ contract, supply to be 6600 volts, , 3 ; phase,. .50 per minute. The charges, require the Council to ; pay £2 5s per quarter per kilovolt ampere of maximum deni a,nd, plus one-tenth of a penny per unit (k.w.) .. for the .first five years and £1 15s for the second five years. Copy of The agreement between the Board and W. H. Williams whereby, for the purpose of foaming a lake, the Board is tor take over 140 acres at Ratapiko on section 1, block 7, of Huiroa survey district, was received from Messrs Syme and Weir, solicitors to the Board. ■Subsequent business was taken -in committee. j