The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1927. WATCHING A BIG CONTRACT

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 186, 27 October 1927, Page 10

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1927. WATCHING A BIG CONTRACT

LIKE Sheba's tale of Solomon’s glory, the half of the wonderful story about the Arapuni affair has not been told. It now appears certain that, the whole story will have to be related in a court of law, dragged out, indeed, by eager barristers aware of the potential riches of the contending litigants'. The prospect does not offer a happy sequel to the proud outset of New Zealand's greatest hydro-electric enterprise. In more senses than one Arapuni threatens to become the Dominion’s biggest dam. It is to be regretted that for once in the record of the State’s development of hydro-electricity a great work could not have been completed in a great way and with something like famous credit for all concerned in the construction of the works at Arapuni and the ultimate service of the scheme. This is the sixteenth year of State activity on such enterprises and, so far, the results have not, in the vernacular, been “anything to write home about.” The tally of under-estimated costs is really a sorry record. Arapuni threatens to cap the lot with a grotesque hood of extra and extraordinary expenditure. On the authority of the eminent English K.C., who is in New Zealand as legal adviser to the British contractors at Arapuni, “somebody has got 1o lose an enormous amount of money over the whole scheme.” The sum indicated by the Kt. Hon. Edward Shortt is nearly £1,000,000, representing a prospective additional expenditure on an already expensive job. Within the past three years the State has spent £1,200,476 on the Arapuni scheme, and an appropriation of £645,000 has been placed on the Public Works Estimates for the same purpose this financial year. Of course, Mr. Sliortt’s disquieting statement on the subject is only one side of the story. The Minister of Public Works has yet to present the Government’s side. And the astute pleader from London would be the first to admit that his story for the contractors is not convincing evidence. Much of it, in fact, would'be dismissed as irrelevant propaganda. It is not for any layman even to presume to express an opinion on the legal technicalities of the unfortunate delay and dispute at Arapuni concerning the power-house site, but Mr. Shortt has invited general comment by his shrewd reference to the national and even Imperial aspect of the controversial business. He is reported as having said that “because this was the first real big contract the New Zealand Government had secured, big contractors at Home were watching very closely.” That is very interesting, hut if it he true the converse must be true also: Because big contractors at Home secured the New Zealand Government’s first real big contract the anxious, overburdened taxpayers in this country are watching the result of it very closely. It cannot be overlooked that the Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department has not hesitated to place on record the department’s disappointment at the progress on the whole contract works. The delay at Arapuni is a serious thing for the people of Auckland, who are paying heavily for it now. If an additional million pounds sterling has to be added 1:o the cost, somebody lias got to lose more than an enormous amount of money over the whole scheme. Somebody will lose a lot of reputation over the extravagant enterprise.