MANGAHAO REVISITED

Shannon News, 12 June 1925, Page 3

MANGAHAO REVISITED

Third Dam Well Under Way SCENIC BEAUTIES OF LAKE AND FOREST. To the average person it appears that activity at Mangahao ceased when the power became available from the hydro-electric scheme, and the general idea prevails that the Mangahao Valley at the present time must present a scene of sylvan peace and quietude, where only the presence of the two- and a-half mile strip of water which constitutes the dam, indicates the activity and records the achievement of the three years of ceaseless labour which bestowed the advantages of electricity on the countryside. That this was an erroneous impression, however, was forcibly borne in upon a •* . representative who visted the Mangahao one day recently, and who, although he had been apprised of the fact that work was in progress there in prepara- '> tion for the “No. 3 Dam,” which is to act as a storage area in anticipation of unusual drought, was nevertheless surprised to find nearly 200 men employed in road-making and other activities in the valley.

ARAPETI’S GREAT WHITE WALL

Leaving Shannon at 11 a.m. in company with the local doctor, who pays a weekly visit to the camp on behalf of the Mangahao Medical Association, an organisation to which the employees on the construction works pay a monthly subscription for medical treatment, our representative ■ renewed old acquaintances in the shape of the “hairpin bend” and many another elibow and corner where he was thankful for a practised driver. And so across the saddle, into the Arapeti Valley, where half a mile below the site, the first glimpse is caught, of the Arapeti Dam, standing like a huge white wall across the shallow valley, and conjuring up visions of some medieval rampart as it stands solid and aloof in splendid isolation. With its neatly constructed hand rail, and smooth white finish, the dam looks slightly incongruous in the bleakness of the hollow, and like George 111, and the apple in the dumpling, one is inclined to wonder “how the devil it f, *ot there ° But it is when one gets above the, dam and sees the site of the once buisy township of Arapeti, now a smooth expanse of water, half a mile or so 'in length, that one realises fully that here at least is a completed work. Where the long rows of tents and shacks stood six months ago, the water now lies 40 feet in depth; only a lew huts remain in occupation, and one or two others with gaping windows and swinging doors proclaim that here has been writen “Finis.”

BUSINESS AS USUAL AT MANGAHAO. The surprise is the greater therefore on reaching the crest of the Mangahao Valley to find the canvastown “married quarters” in full occupation A wider patch cut in the bush of the road line forms the site of this miniature township where there are at the present time some 30 families residing—-those of the married portion of the workmen. A large hut here is used as a school-room where between forty and fifty children are taught; and here also the District Nurse has her quarters, and very kindly supplied lunch to the Leaving the doctor to attend to his professional duties, the writer started for the dam, which lies 500 odd feet below this situation, and was again surprised on reaching the top of the old “jig-way” to dlscoV .^ in S at the Mangahao camp proper, muned- . lately across the dam was still as as ever, the white tents in irregular tfers, showing up boldly across the precipitous gully. There were changes, however; the stage at the top o g f the jig-way, where Piously lorries constantly arrived, healing loads of cement and other constituents of the,dam, and haying unloaded on to the truck, which dropped down the 45 degrees slope to the bottom of the hill, shot away again, was now deserted, and the absence of human activity accentuated the grandeur of the scene From the top of the iig-way, the dam is not vis ible although tlie camp is clearly seen and in front, and all around is nothin** but range after range of Kh-clad hills, with the Mungahao Valley like a narrow gash cut into the solidity of the mountains. It s steepness as one looks aovmwardb from this height strikesi onej with ever fresh surprise, and the descent j means of the jig-way is like walking down a. ladder 7irU , AY HOAD REPLACES JIGWAY.

There is. however, no longer any need to walk down the jig-way, oi tliezig-zag track alongside, for since Se jam was completed a fourteen font road, a mile in length, leads down by a quite satisfactory grad - ST to the level of the wa er and will continue on the three and ahal miles to the site of the p u piic And the point for which the 1 umic Works Department cannot receive much praise—although their retention prevents the h slipping must be remembered— is that only such trees as were actual the way, have been removed in man ini this road. It drops down the hillside on a long bold sweep, the big trees actually leaning righ across it, turns on a fortuitouslewd shelf and in another bold sweep leads down to the dam. Rou \ > comer here, and suddenly, almost ctnrtlingly, one catches one s first climpse of the completed dam, only fw^ P chains aiiead, and below one, with a great sheet of water, a hund- - rori vards or so in width, standing almost on a'level with the beholder, niwi flUlriK all the narrow valley, perhaps wba* surmises most at

first glance Is the insignificant appearance of the dam itself. When last seen by the writer it was a towering mass of concrete filling up the gorge from side to side, the middle portion, then uncompleted, a scene of ceaseless activity, where night and day shutes shot ton after ton of concrete, crates swung out huge buckets of boulders to be 4 dumped into the liquid mass, and where over all was the clang and rattle of machinerymixers, engines, cranes, etc., which insisted, if insistence were necessary, on the magnitude of the undertaking. MANGAHAO DAM. But now the water fills the upper side of the completed dam to the very crest of the spillway gates, over which a shallow sheet, an inch or so in depth continuously flows. The dam, 180 ft in width, with the water coming over it, looks no more than an unimpressive waterfall, some 80 feet or so in height, but still a waterfall which, if natural, would claim admiration for one peculiarity. The concrete of the dam bellies outvvards from below the spillway gates with the result that the water coming over the top, does not fall directly into the river 1 . Instead it strikes the concrete, breaking into a white film, and every corrugation down the slope of the wall where the boards used in its building made irregularities, further breaks the falling water, until it looks like a huge white cashmere shawl flung as a veiling over it. FOREST TREES UP TO THE NECKS IN WATER. !

But this holds the eye only lor a great sheet of water in front, and immediately becomes aware of another phenomenon. The lake—for Us size makes it worthy of the Daniels, up to the first bend, a third of a mile in length. Half way along this stretch, an island of green treetops stands -out of the water. No sign of trunk is visible and suddenly ii is borne in upon one that these trees, rata, hi-nau, and rimu, are standing as it were, up to their necks in the water, and one realises that the depth must be forty or fifty feet. The explanation is, of course, simple: when the dam was being constructed, no attempt was made to clear the trees from the flats along the river bed, with the result that us the water backed up behind the 80 foot wall, these became submerged, totally or partially according to their height. SCENIC BEAUTIES. The new road continues on along the edge of the dam, and is constructed to full width as far as the old quarry, the site of which now shows merely as a shattered crag > standing a few feet above the level of the water. Here also no bush beyond what was unavoidable has been cut, and looking from this position it is possible to conceive that .here within the next few years, will be one of the most picturesque motor drives iu the Dominion. Inside that time the scrub, which indeed has not been cut, will have, iu that moist climate, completely clothed the road banks again, and there will be offered such a feast of bush and mountain scenery as one might search far to find. On’the right, the hillside towers up precipitously, the fifty foot tree ferns clinging perilously to its rocky sides, amongst the tangled growth of larger forest trees. So steep is the hill, , that, although the large trees have been cut back for a chain or more from the bank, those further up still overhang the road. Below the road again, which is some 30 feet above the darn, the bush is standing, and here all along the banks the trees may be seen standing at various depths in the water. And equally steep, equally picturesque, the bush sweeps up the further valley side, the placid waters of the dam between providing contrast and variety. The launch which plies on the dam from tire Mangahao end to below the site of No. 3 Dam, which is to be commenced shortly, had left only a lew minutes before our representative arrived, but a workman who had come down from, the scene of the road construction' for a supply of gelignite, offered him a ride up the dam in the row-boat in which lie had made the trip- Landing where the work was proceeding, where amidst a mass of shattered rOck, the pneumatic drills hammered like machine guns, as the bodes were 5 drilled for blasting, an interview with the ganger procured his company and the use of another boat, and a start was made for the landing-stage at the head of the dam. But previous to this a quarter of a mile walk was necessary along the road under construction, and an appreciation of the size of the job was unavoidable Out of tlie solid rock of the hillside, mostly it is being blasted—not tor chains, but lor three and a-half miles. Scrambling over shattered masses ol rock, dislodged by blasting, aerus>fe

easier places where the road 'a. roughly finished our representative and his guide made their way _ where a boat was seen ni° lh . bunk, with all around it a lowest ol tree-tops. As they descended a voice hailed the ganger from above, Got am- ‘ielly’ (gelignite) Dioki m 5 lend you some,:; “Go. down »nd get what you want. ’ Bight, uu the laconic reply, and the rattle ol in interrupted drill commenced again. Out on to the dam the boat yuu guided, turning and twisting amidthe tree-tops; out into a deep and sluggish stream—as it appeared tf a chain or so in width where he hillside stands like a wall above th-. water and so around a point whut no sign of tlic new road appeals, nor camp, nor aught but trees and water.

BOATING AMONG THE TREE TQPb. Nothing could be more suggestive nf a sluggish tropical river than the scene hen presented. The *■* nnJ h ar^r b ™ s ras'e Coast The depth of the water, and Uie only the chatter ol

monkeys in the trees is absent. Being level with the tops of tall trees is a curious sensation. So thick are the branches that one realises that it would be quite easy to swing from one to another for chains, and an atavistic urge makes one wish that one cjould flip a prehensile tail across a limb and revert—temporarily —to the primal type. At the top of the dam a 50 foot wharf runs out into the water, where a couple of the pontoons used for conveying material, stores, etc., from Mangahao to No. 3, may be accommodated at one time. Above the tramway, a jig-way 100 ft in length rises to a tramway laid along an eight foot track which leads to the site of No. 3 darn. This track, which follows the road-line to the darn, is being widened out to full road width, and one of the chief uses for the tramway at present is to carry metal for this road froin a quarry (Opened at the top of the jig-way. THE NO. 3 DAM. No. 3 Dam wiU be built at a gorge, as was Mangahao, and here also tire same trouble of a boulder-pack is being encountered, necessitating in this instance, a core-wall seven and a-half chains in length. The gorge itself across which the darn proper will be built, is I.s chains in width, and about 50ft In height. At this place 40 men are camped at the present time, some 20 odd being Italians, of whom there are more than 40, out of. the 236 employed, on the job. They are given an excellent name as hard workers and reliable men, and have mostly, it is understood, drifted across from Australia.

At the site of the dam also, a small party of men are driving a shaft into Ihe hillside to determine the distance which it will be necessary to lock the concrete of the wall into the rock. Two other men with a boring plant are driving holes through the boulder, pack, to discover its depth and extent. At intervals along the new road other small camps are situated, but a large number of men—between sixty and seventy—are taken up to their work every morning and brought back in the evening by punt. As time was getting late a quick return was made. Suddenly as the boat neared its destination, a shout came from the hillside above, to be answered by others down the length of the road. For a few seconds there was silence, and then crash after crash, like a battery of eighteen pounders, came . the shots from the rock face, while the shattered rock rained down into the dam only a chain or two ahead, like bursting shrapnel. Apparently the borrower was making good use of Dick’s “jelly.” Within the next couple of months, the whole camp at Mangahao will be shifted, per medium of the punts, to the site of the new dam. The road will be completed by that time, and the material could he taken by it, but as it would be necessary to use the punts, to transport the cami across the dam to the road, it is thought better once the punts are loaded, to take them right to the head of the dam.

It was late in. the afternoon when our representative climbed the hill out of the valley again, and a little touch which proves the eternity of youtlr was that when he reached the married quarters again his notice was attracted by children’s shouts and laughter at the edge of thife bush behind the tents. Looking up he saw a group of youngsters amusing themselves (by swinging on the rata vines, as he hi(mself had done in his own childhood. For the full enjoyment of the sport, a tree is selected which grows ion vr steep slope, and the youthful aeronaut takes hold of the vine, :ajnd walking back some distance swings out over the void. It is a pleasant "sport though rather trying on a mother’s nerves, and our representative was pleased to see that the Mangahao youngsters had nothing to learn about it.