The Riddle of Arapuni

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 74, 18 June 1927, Page 8

The Riddle of Arapuni

Puzzles for the Taxpayer ARAPUNI is a problem for the New Zealand taxpayer. A contract already. months overdue, and a strike for which the company, possibly, was partly to blame, are considerations which make the man in the street ponder.

JJOW far the contractors are behind time may be gauged from the fact that, one power unit was to have been generating by last April. Lately Mr. F. W. Furkert, Engineer-in-Ghief to the Government, has uttered reassuring words, stating that power will be available by the end of 1925. Other competent observers, however, are confident that power from Arapuni is yet two years away. Not a girder of the power house is so far in position, the site being still awash, and it is acknowledged that the construction of the building will be a very long job. RIDDLES FOR TAXPAYERS Prospective consumers, the ultimate sufferers, were presented with a sufficiently perplexing riddle when they sought to place the blame for the power house site fiasco. Now they face an equally difficult question—at whose door can the blame for the strike be laid? Even on the spot at Arapuni, where opinions are generously exchanged, the truth is not easily sifted from the mass of volunteered information. For the labour troubles of the past week there has, clearly, been blame on both sides. It is asserted by the workers that, in the paralysing cold of the Arapuni winter, the provisions for the comfort of the men have been inadequate. So feeble, they say, were the so-called

heaters —a couple of luke-warm steam pipes—that the dwellers in “TinTown” sought warmth from improvised electric heaters, but discovery of these makeshifts jeopardised the billets of their creators. The many hazards of -work in the rock-bound river bed, and food asserted to be often unpalatable, combine to give the men ,a further basis for discontent, and in many respects it is fair to say their complaints have been substantiated by independent observers on the spot. WHEN ENGINEERS DISAGREE New Zealand engineers, Government and otherwise, are known to disagree with some of the methods followed at Arapuni. It is held by some that the absence of a concrete distributing tower will be a serious factor later, when the dam becomes so high that the concrete will not flow down the existing Insley chutes. As for the powerhouse, one man, experienced in public works projects of a similar character, says work could be prosecuted at once. The foundations could be so rooted in the rock, he claims, that even fractures of the underlying “country” would not endanger the building’s stability. The fact that the borings were bringing up sand was of no importance, as chip boring, the process followed, would always pulverise the rock, and not unless core borings w r ere taken could a thorough survey be made.