The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1930 THE ARAPUNI JUMBO

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 996, 12 June 1930, Page 10

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 1930 THE ARAPUNI JUMBO

IS there any likelihood of the Arapuni electric enterprise be- * coming the Dominion’s biggest white elephant ? Already the scheme, in respect of expenditure, has assumed elephantine proportions. The money spent so far in excess of the original estimates of the cost is a sum sufficient to have endowed a firstclass school of engineering with a special department for the geological study of broken and unstable ground. And the end of expenditure, not on extension, but on protective works and some reconstruction is neither in sight nor definitely calculable. There is an old saying that no one should kick a man or a dog when he is down. Need that appreciable axiom be made applicable to a State elephant temporarily inanimate? The Arapuni Jumbo has been so capricious and intractable that everybody today is talking about it. In all probability there is a great deal of foolishness in the talk. It need not he pretended that laymen, in particular, know much or really anything concerning the technical side of an exasperating problem, but since such critics will form the majority of those who in the end must pay dearly for so many major operations, perhaps they may be permitted or pardoned at least for asking, without impertinence, if all the expert engineers concerned know everything about the causes of Arapuni’s chronic troubles? Was their knowledge complete when, three years ago, they took over the contract for the construction of the power-house from an English firm which obviously had doubts as to the stability of the ground and baulked at completion of their original undertaking? As an Arapuni Maori quaintly has phrased it: “That fellow Armstrong Whitworth Company; he know!” And everybody on the stricken works at Arapuni has been talking about the serious business, too. Moreover, it would seem that some of the commentators there have been talking either too freely or before it was their turn to talk. A flat denial of the statement reported from Arapuni yesterday that it had been decided to proceed with protective works on a colossal scale, necessitating additional expenditure in the same proportion, has been made tersely by the Minister of Public Works. The Hon. W. B. Taverner, a shrewd man of Dunedin who, as a municipal administrator there had many years of pleasing experience of profitable public works (he must shudder nowadays at the different experience in State enterprises), announces emphatically today that no decision at all has yet been made dealing with remedial works and their extent at Arapuni. Further, he has declared that it is not his intention to make any hasty decisions. “The problem is one presenting such extraordinary conditions that the fullest possible information will be required before anything can be done.” This is the sort of frankness a community too long lulled by political delusions will hail with a lively appreciation. It wants to know exactly why more than two and aquarter million pounds- sterling already has been spent on a scheme that, so far, has fallen short of even a reasonable success, and why possibly half a million more may have to he spent before the idle, crippled elephant is again at work. This community, nay, the whole country now, also wants to know if, after all this actual and potential expenditure, there will be available a solid guarantee that security of the protected works will be permanent and dependable beyond the least and last shadow of doubt. Such a guarantee has been lacking all along, and the time has come to disperse apprehension. It is all very well and temptingly easy in an impious way to attribute difficulties and even minor disaster to “acts of God,” hut when troubles and unforeseen menaces become continuous like a thrilling serial story, common sense suggests that someone in authority ought to ask if all the acts of engineers have been without a flaw. The position at Arapuni is so serious that it demands a thorough investigation. A costly crisis has arisen and there is no early prospect of Arapuni coming into service as the main source of electric power for a third of the Dominion’s population. The people are tolerant, good-natured in patience, and really generous in sympathy with the harassed authorities, but there is a limit to these community virtues. That limit is not far away. The Government should “malt’ siccar” this time that the engineers will be able to make an end to Arapuni’s faults, fractures and sporadic failure.

AN OFFER OF SUBSIDIES

IT does not require a statement by the Deputy-Mayor of Auckland to enlighten citizens as to the problems involved in the Government’s latest offer. Even the most casual reviewer of the City Council’s finances knows that estimates are well abreast of revenue, and even a comparatively alluring offer of two-to-one in State subsidies for unemployment relief works does not make easier the finding of the necessary money. Nevertheless it is abundantly plain that the effort should be forthcoming. In view of the present position of unemployment, local bodies cannot afford to ignore the chance of supplementing the hard-pressed ratepayer’s penny with the obliging taxpayer’s tuppence, particularly when it is possible to spend the aggregate sum in useful and progressive fashion. Obviously, the Government’s action in offering the subsidy means that, for the time being, it is no nearer the solution of the unemployment problem than were its predecessors in office, and those who first utilised the subsidy system. But there is some satisfaction in the knowledge that Cabinet continues to exercise the new political virtue of candour, and it remains for the country to gain what advantage it can from the part-pooling of national resources. Those whose constant cry is that unemployment relief should be a charge on the State must hear in mind that the granting of £2 for £1 subsidies amounts practically to an adoption of that principle, and to refuse the offer of State help when the only alternative is a continuance of wasteful charity would he foolishness. In this case, over-caution will mean ultimate exti’avagance. Though the City Council’s estimates are already equal to the anticipated revenue, they do not include a number of useful works, the establishment of which would be of ultimate benefit to Auckland. The proposed municipal golf course, for example, is an enterprise highly suitable for relief purposes. It would provide a considerable amount of navvying work, and there is little doubt that, in time, it would more than pay for itself, just as similar undertakings have proved profitable to other centres. The remaining local bodies, particularly the Transport Board and the Harbour Board, for their part, have a great deal to gain and little to lose by taking advantage of Government assistance on relief works. A group of 1,400 men are awaiting employment today. The ill wind caused by tlie breakdown at Arapuni no doubt will blow some of them good, but many will remain seeking either work or charity. Relief work offers a return for the outlay, but charity is costly and produces nothing. Clearly, there is no need or excuse for hesitation. An emergency effort should be made without delay and, better still, it should be made the outcome of an early conference of the Auckland local bodies concerned.