The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND MONDAY, JUNE 9, 1930 MORE TROUBLE AT ARAPUNI

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 993, 9 June 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND MONDAY, JUNE 9, 1930 MORE TROUBLE AT ARAPUNI

THERE is no cause for alarm over the latest trouble at the Arapuni hydro-electric works. It is true that a serious natural fault has developed with almost a sensational rapidity, hut its consequences at the worst should be nothing worse than another unforeseen increase in the great expenditure on the enterprise, and possibly some inconvenience to provincial users of Arapuni power. The mammoth dam is neither impaired nor imperilled. It is a mile away from the source of present trouble, and is as sound, though not so profitable, as the Bank of New Zealand which, in spite of bad times and national difficulties, has come through with a record profit and the sort of dividend that might well comfort the harassed Government representing the largest holder of shares, and dispel the pessimism of the Prime Minister. So there is no reason whatever for scaremongering about “flaws, faults, and failure at Arapuni.” Hysterical women and excitable men along the lower Waikato need not, in night-clothes, take to the hills. Such anxiety as is justified by the new vexatious circumstances should be confined exclusively to administrators and their competent engineers who already with admirable resourcefulness on several occasions have confounded the prophets of evil. Beyond doubt the Arapuni engineering staff and the expert officials of the Public Works Department have had more than a reasonable share of extraordinary difficulties. The password for the sentries guarding the lyays today to the locality of trouble might well be a borrowed title from the Poet Laureate— O.D.T.A.A. Ever since the Public Works Department took the unfinished task over from the original contractors its experiences have been simply “one damned thing after another.” Excessive water in the site of the power-house, erosion, leaks, machinery vibration, and now an ugly earth fault in the country adjoining the overflow channel and the penstock intake structure. Bad fractures have occurred, and inevitably give the engineers cause for apprehension. They have not wasted a moment in taking precautionary measures, and the frankness with which the trouble has been announced will do more than anything else could have done not only to disperse foolish panic throughout the Waikato, but to secure quick and complete co-operation, if necqssary, from the electric-power hoards concerned in the Arapuni supply. The full extent of the flaw has not yet been ascertained. So far investigation has revealed a fairly severe fracture in the concrete of the penstock intake structure, and there has been disquieting evidence that the fault runs into the earth. This admittedly has always been a potential danger in a territory that is known to be of a broken and an unstable nature. Already, those who instinctively look for the worst at Arapuni are predicting the ultimate necessity of constructing a new powerhouse in firmer and non-porous ground. Time enough to talk that way if and when the engineers confess inability to overcome natural flaws. The hope has been expressed that further investigation of the fractures and bad leaks in the face of the gorge, and such corrective works as may be required, will he carried out without the need of stopping the supply of electric power for the province. Everybody will exereise the same hopefulness, but it would he better in the long run to impose even a great deal of inconvenience on power boards and the public rather than to handicap the engineers in their work of reinforcement. From the beginning of the audacious and expensive enterprise there has been no end of difficulties, and at no time has there been any lack of prediction as to serious danger and disaster. Today no encouragement should be given to such foolish talk. The stability of the main dam is neither in question nor under suspicion. Thus the latest (one hopes it may be the last) trouble is relatively of a minor character, demanding still another exercise of the engineers’ initiative and resourceful ability. They have triumphed in many severe tests, and can he relied upon again to meet and overcome a serious difficulty in bad ground.

OVERCROWDED LIBRARY

IN September, the 50th anniversary of the Auckland Public Library is to be marked by the issue of a jubilee bulletin in which will he traced the history of this admirable institution. Unfortunately (in view of the present need for civic economy) the occasion is one which demands something more than a retrospect of past activities and a pardonable expression of satisfaction at the progress revealed. There is urgent and increasing need for an extension of accommodation at the City headquarters, and the jubilee year represents a time when the council must consider present and future requirements. No one could wish to deny that the library is catering magnificently for the requirements of an appreciative public. Carefully and capably controlled, it is of immense educative and recreative value to the community, and its generously-planned chain system in the suburbs is an example to many cities larger and older than Auckland. But the time has come, as is inevitable in every growing organisation, when existing facilities are inadequate to meet the demands of those who patronise it and the needs of its administrative staff. Today the library is seriously overcrowded in every department. The work of the librarian, Mr. John Barr, and his assistants is hampered by lack of space and their difficulties are being overcome at the expense of the public. As Mr. Barr has pointed out in a frank report to the City Council, there is not even an unpacking room for consignments of new books, while accommodation for readers has been curtailed by the congestion apparent on every hand. He might have added, and with every justification, that the public rooms themselves—apart from any question of congestion—are illsuited to modern requirements, being poorly ventilated and not particularly well lighted. There is considerable scope here for interior alteration on up-to-date lines. Similar conditions prevail in the adjacent sections of the building—the Art Gallery and the Old Colonists’ Museum. The one has reached the limit of its capacity, and the other, besides being in a state of congestion so long-standing that it has become part of the atmosphere of the place, is gloomily and depressingly housed and difficult of access. Clearly the remedy lies in a transference of the Art Gallery to a new and spacious building; also the finding of worthy quarters for the relics of Auckland’s pioneers. Probably the Art Gallery space would be sufficient for the needs of the library for some time to come, but it would he more satisfactory and, ultimately, cheaper if a complete clearance were made in one move, thus leaving the entire building at the disposal of an institution that will have no difficulty in finding a use for every portion of it. Without doubt the work will be costly, particularly in view of the Art Gallery requirements, but it is swiftly becoming an essential one. The coming jubilee will he well and fittingly celebrated if a scheme for library betterment is announced.