ARAPUNI

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 999, 16 June 1930, Page 8

ARAPUNI

Sir.— “There seems to be a crack in everything that God has made; just when tllink that we have rounded off our sj stem satisfactorily a loophole discloses itself and spoils everything.”— Dean Inge. And so. with the whole of our electrical supply system in the Auckland y- Arapuni we have built our hydro-electric power plant on thermal ground, with pumice drift from 14 _ f !\ et ln depth, permeating the at a depth of from i'^jL lo ,". oo feet below the surface. The difficulties to be surmounted bv the engineers will be obvious to the ordinft r L;i ly ! nan - J- n tile circumstances is :„' s ! to spend another million pounds a n tJ he y< ? rk ' °r in the construction of a generating plant at. or near. Huntlv” of tL aS We a P prec ihte the bona tides the Promoters of the Arapuni scheme, would it not be wiser for the adyi ? c ‘ rs to th f Public Works Department to say that no more huge sums of money will be expended in patchinl thev P wn C r U i? aßaln - 1 don't think ;° ey . but what of the taxpayer? - .i nct tlme ,ie had something to savin the matter? As one of them. I beg to suggest that a central power station l.e erected at Huntly. for several reasons: (1) The people are losing (Continued in next column.)

confidence in -Arapuni. (2) To make the King’s Wharf station effective to carrv the present and increasing load, it would be necessary to secure the most modern and up-to-date plant. Now. sir. for the sum it will cost to repair Arapuni—probably from £ 500,000 to £ i oO.OOO—we could erect a plant at Huntly. close to six producing coalmines, ensuring a good and cheap supply of coal, delivered direct to the hoppers of the power statior and, incidentally, be the means of keeping in employment two or three thousand miners. JONAS GADFLY.