POWER FROM ARAPUNI.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 225, 23 February 1928, Page 4

POWER FROM ARAPUNI.

ONE TURBINE FIRST. That Time Limit. The unsatisfactory state of affair* with regard to Arapuni induced the live and energetic chairman of the Auckland Power Board to journey to Wellington last week with a view to obtaining a definite promise in regard to the supply of power. The report submitted by Mr. W. J. Holdsworth to his board on his return shows that a definite undertaking has been given that work on the plant at Penrose would be expedited by the working of three shiftsand that three Diesel sets would be operating by next June. In regard to Arapuni the position is more clouded, and the Minister of Public Works remains apparently a nonentity so far as information to the public is concerned. This time it is not Mr. Kissel but Mr. Furkert who speaks. The latter has already made a bad break so far as Arapuni is concerned, and more recently the chief electrical engineer promised that Arapuni would be completed in 18 months, many weeks of which have already slipped by with little to show on the powerhouse site.

Now a promise has been secured that one turbine will be concentrated upon, and the folly of the previous promises, as pointed out in the Press, appears to be aiTeady proved by the fact that no guarantee would be given that this turbine will be functioning within 18 months. The position thus is that during the holidays Mr. Kissel on two occasions emphasised that Arapuni would be completed within 18 months. This was at a time when the Government was trying to save its face with regard to the settlement with Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth Ltd. Against this Mr. Furkert, engineer-in-chief, will not guarantee the functioning of one turbine within the time the chief electrical engineer promises the whole job will be completed. In summing up his impressions Mr. Holdsworth guardedly says, “ It will be fully two years before the three sets (at Arapuni) are going.” In this estimate we think Mr. Holdsworth is optimistic; and we see no reason for qualifying our statement of last December that three years is more likely to be the time and that the muddle is that of Mangahao over again. It is no use crying after the event, and the mess obtaining in regard to the irrigation works in Otago clearly shows that all is not well with the Public Works Department. The position at Arapuni is well worthy of a public inquiry, and it may be that the coming winter floods will result in forcing one.