Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1942 ELECTRICITY AND THE WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 19 October 1942, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1942 ELECTRICITY AND THE WAR

IN ordinary circumstances there is no justification for the people pressing a Government to prosecute public works during the war though there is every reason for planning for the post-war period- Works directly associated with the conduct of the war are an exception. The South Island Main Trunk railway, for example, is going to be completed because the Government has decided that the resultant saving in petrol and tyres at this time will be more than worth the expenditure in steel and other materials and of labour required to do the job. Electric power is also closely bound up with our defence activities and, where there is danger of a shortage, provision of additional power is rightly regarded as essential. This was acknowledged in Mr Fraser’s last budget which contained the following paragraph: In view of the shortage of power it is considered that hy-dro-electric construction work should proceed as far as is practicable and £1,100,000 will be provided for this purpose. The Cobb hydro-electric scheme

comes within this category. It has been classed as essential work but labour and material shortages have held up its completion. At one time it was confidently anticipated that the Cobb would be operating by June of this year. Now the chief obstacle to completion appears to be lack of 200 tbns of steel, less than half the amount of 420 tons which comes into New Zealand each month under arrangement with the Australian Government. It is the task of the electric supply authorities in the Cobb area to perj suade the Government to release this ! steel for the work. Armament proI duction in New Zealand has first call i on imported steel. The Waimea I Power Board has wisely decided to \ send a deputation to the Minister of I Public Works (Mr Armstrong) re- | questing that the steel required lor j the Cobb should be made available. ; With him will need to be coupled the j Minister of Supply (Mr Sullivan) j with whose department probably | rests decision about allocation of | steel. On the Government’s own | showing hydro-electric construction I occupies a high place on the priority e list of war works, not so high as e armament production, but the turnI ing over of 200 tons of steel is not | going to hamper arms production. I When he was in Nelson in February 1 last Mr Sullivan was asked about the | re-opening of Onekaka to supplement f our iron requirements. His reply was | that the works would be re-opened 1 if a situation arose whereby it was 1 impossible to fulfil needs through | imports. In its present state One- | kaka could not produce steel neces- ! sary for the Cobb scheme a few | miles away, but there is a duty on | the Government to see that neces- | sary works are not held up because

The case for asking that the Cobb be got going as soon as possible is a good one- Part of the demand for power which makes it necessary comes from defence establishments which are being supplied from existing stations. Primary producers who are being asked to produce more and more to meet the needs of war on the supply side—products which are as indispensable as munitions—must have electric power. The Cobb would do away with the need for importing hundreds of tons of oil fuel and thus relieve pressure on shipping space. With increased electricity demands in Nelson and Marlborough areas, for which the war is largely responsible, we are getting close to the red line in the capacity of existing plants. The difficulty can be removed, the electrical engineers tell us, by making available 200 tons of steel. Surely a strong and widely representative deputation should be able to convince the Government that steel for the Cobb must be placed very high up on the priority list of war requirements.