Arapuni in the Air

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 200, 12 November 1927, Page 8

Arapuni in the Air

Nurnberg Engine Arrives Threat of Power Famine BERTHING to-day, the liner Port Hardy brings to Auckland the first instalment of the Nurnberg submarine engines to be erected at Penrose for the relief of a potential power famine. Meanwhile, the Arapuni deadlock drags on. The Government and the contractors are still endeavouring to avoid the necessity for recourse to arbitration or litigation.

T}RO VISION for arbitration was "*■ made in the contract but, though it would avoid the colossal costs and endless appeals of a court case, arbitration would still involve heavy ex penses and serious delay. The clause stipulated that each side should appoint a representative, and that, failing an agreement, the two should decide on an independent umpire. To satisfy both parties the umpire would have to be a paragon of virtues, and it is unlikely that he would be found in Australia or New Zealand. Something in the nature of arbitration Is being prosecuted at the mo-

ment in Wellington, where the At-torney-General, Sir Francis Bell, is closeted almost daily with the Hon. Edward Shortt. K.C., the legal representative of Armstrong, Whitworth, Ltd. Mr. A. M. Myers, K.C., who was consulted by the Government over the Samoa difficulties, is advising it again in this latest problem. ON WITH THE DAM

During these negotiations the contractors are not attempting to carry on work at the Arapuni power-house site, where idleness has now ruled for months past. In these circumstances the project is like a mawkish boy or an eccentric tree, arrested in one part of its development. The immense dam is now raised to full dimensions across the bisected riverbed, and along its crest rides the parapet, to guard the road of the future. Compared with the dam, the powerhouse was originally regarded as only a minor phase of the job. That is shown by the Prime Minister’s admission that, in the compilation of the data for the power-house site, “certain things were assumed.” Conse-

quently, with the dam nearly finished, the contractors are reducing their staff, and sending some of their en gineers to the scenes of other undertakings. The original engineering staff will soon be scattered over the world, though the engineers still remain in the service of the great organisation that employs them, a con cern that builds ships, locomotives, mammoth guns, and amazingly di- ■ verse machinery, and that controls some of the largest industrial plants lof Britain and the Continent, i Mr. F. W. A. Handman, who before Ihe came to New Zealand was on a i big job on the Rio Grande del Norte for the Brazilian Government, is still ! in charge at Arapuni, hut recently Mr. H. W. H. Thomson, who was formerly on the famous “Humber Arm" proposition in Newfoundland, left foi i.lieland. via Canada, and Mr. F. D. Martin, chief sub-agent, will follow him, travelling via South Africa. ENGINES FOR PENROSE These officers will not be in New Zealand to see the crowning of their task, or the closing of the diversion tunnel by means of a ponderous gate controlled a vast hydraulic ram. The completion of Arapuni is still so far off as to be in the indefinite stage, and that is why the Nuruberg engines have been ordered, and why the Auckland Power Board was spurred to anguished protest when the Minister of Public Works mentioned in his recent statement that one of the three units “might” be installed at Penrose by next June. To the Power Board’s protest the Government’s reply was that every effort would be made to have the set ready in time for the heavy loading expected next winter. As far as could be ascertained this morning, however, only one of the three machines has arrived by the Port Hardy, and the other two are assumed to be following by a later boat. Even one of the engines, which were part of the reparation payments exacted from Germany after the war, is extremely heavy and bulky merchandise. The detail of the consignment occupies a full sheet of the Port Hardy’s manifest, and the freight on the shipment is over £5,000. A huge corrugated iron building is to be erected at Penrose to accommodate the set, and by the time they are erected the total cost will probably be close to £60,000 —all because of the delay at Arapuni.