PUSH ON MANGAHAO!

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1960, 3 April 1919, Page 1

PUSH ON MANGAHAO!

- —■ MR. EVAN PARRY’S SCHEME,

In a farewell interview with a New Zealand Times reporter, Mr Evan Parry, who has just resigned the position of chief electrical engineer for New Zealand, stressed the importance of pushing on as speedily as possible with the work of hy-dro-electric development, in view of the great problems of repatriation and reconstruction now confronting the country. If the men and the money were available, he urged, the three North Island power stations —at Mangahao, Arapuni, and Waikaremoana —should forthwith be proceeded with simultaneously. Given the men and the money required, he said, it would be possible in three years’ time to get a 10,000 horsepower plant working at each of these centres, and to do much of the linking up; and to develop from that up to the total of 100,000 horsepower at present planned for would be a matter of gradual growth as the demand for power increased. In three years a similar start could be made in the South Island. UKCENCY Ol’ THE MANGAHAO SCHEME. “But,” said Mr Parry, “if you have not enough men to go on with the three North Island stations at the same time, (hen the right thing to do is to coneenrate on the Mangahao scheme, because the demand for power is more urgent iici c, particularly in Wellington City, than in any other parts of the island. In Wellington you have two powerhouses, with no room for extension at either, and both of them already working right up to the limit. If, however, the men and the money are to hand for the three schemes, all three should be proceeded with at once. You could not expedite the work at Mangahao by pxltting more than a certain number of men on (he job; and my estimate of three years for developing 10,000 horsepower at each of the three centres is based on the supposition that you have! all (he men and all the money required for developing each and all of the schemes as expeditiously and as economically as possible. In Wellington City and suburbs about 0,000 horse-power are now being used for the tramways and the electric light undertakings, so that of the 10,000 horse-power developed in the tirst instance at Mangahao, 4,000 would be left for industrial concerns, and so forth. Big towns like Palmerston North and Wanganui, which have no local sources of hydro-electric supply, would also be dependent upon Mangahao; and that is an additional reason for pushing on with that scheme as quickly as possible. In the case of Wellington, of course, if you do not get the Mangahao power-supply, your City Council will be faced, in the interests of economy, with the necessity for replacing the two existing power-stations with a single station better located with regard to the facilities for obtaining coal and water. But, if you get the hydroelectric supply, then the present el-ectric-lighting station will be ample for a stand-by station, though some readjustment would, of course, be required.