LIVE WIRES WANTED.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 594, 21 December 1920, Page 4

LIVE WIRES WANTED.

Sir,—l read with much interest a Write up by your reporter on "lighting and heating by electricity" on a Waipipi farm belonging to Mr. Alfred Jones. There is one error in your report which, is simply the result of your reporter's lack of electrical knowledge, or perhaps a typographical error; tcT'wit, he uses the term kilowatts when he means watts. He states that altogether Mr. Jones' plant generates 500 kilowatts, and I am quite sure .he means 500 watts, or thereabouts; 500 kilowatts is more than sufficient to light the whole of Pukekohe Borough and milk all the cows in the borough. As a matter of fact o,ne kilowatt is equal to 710 Watts. However, this is all by the way, and the error is' quite patent and not worth discussion. The point is that Mr. Jones is evidently. somewhat of a pioneer in the utilisation. of force water power, which costs him nothing, or practically nothing, once his plant is installed, and as your reporter states, this plant will last for 50 years, which is more or less correct. This then brings us to the question of the continuous talk, discussion and conferences which our borough councils, county councils, our chambers of commerce, and even our Governments are continually harping on, and just Wasting energy and good time and arriving at nothing. Jt is a pity that our chiefs, whom we look to and appoint to conduct our welfare and commercial benefits, have not the wit or gumption of a mere outback in practically unknown Waipipi, to seize . the huge waste of energy flowing almost by our doors. In New Zealand we have facilities for cheaper power,that no Other country on this earth has. This is a. Country of unlimited waterways and its powers of conversion to in-dustrial-utility can hardly be estir mated. In my opinion, it is positively '.for. our counter,: town's, our own Rukekohe and Waiu, also Huntly, Ngaruawahia, illon, and all the small Waikato towns, fb be, under the expens3 of Greeting, equipping, staffing, and maintaining separate power generating? plants. Even our greatest provincial heads, such as the Auckland City Council, are quite satisfied to, place the populace of their city at the mercy of the coal miners. I have nothing to say for or against the miners, as this is not the subject of my letter, but the fact remains that we, are quite content to place ourselves at the mercy of a human element that means at th& best a costly, inadequate, and certainly and undependable supply of power, and more certainly the most costly supply that the mind or ingenuity of man can conceive. It seems to me that our vaunted science, education and boasted civilisation simply amounts to nothing more than is to be found amongst the savage tribes (more or less so) of the Pacific, where each tribe is a kingdom of its own and no trespassers allowed. If 50 per cent. of the money already spent on electrical energy in the Waikato were concentrated in one big water-power scheme, the whole of the Waikato districts could have cheap p*wer, and cheap power after all does not count for everything, but it counts for more than we perhaps give thought to.. When we cheapen our power we arc going to have greater home comforts, find greater industrial benefits. Moreover, wo are gojng tc run our power with lesser staffs, which means thnt we will have a greater number of producers, and no ono can deny the fact that this country is dependent on its" primary producers. The more producers we can free for urlmary work tlvj more prosperous this country will be; this is an indis-w jputftblo fa*t. To get back to the original theme, let all our leaders stop this positive waste of energy, tease squabbling, and do something practical. Electricity ean be conveyed from the Bluff to the North Cape, if necessary, and it matters not whether the cheapest water-power is in Tipjbuetat o*- Pukekohe, so ion;; as we can all gckU>ot >i cost that makes ilk worth while V> have it, There is certainly no need for us to be de* pendent on the coal miners of New Zealand, nor the Yankee oil trusts, for our lighting and heating. God has gJVen us every facility for this right at our defersi' It is just too easy, and for that very reason we seem to prefer to make dollars for those parasites on industry than to accept the God-given benefit.} that are at our hands.' Let cfjhr political and civic leaders wake up, or w'e will be too lute, and Labour will take command. JOHN COADY. Pukekohe. December 21, 1920.