AN OMINOUS SILENCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1006, 24 June 1930, Page 1

AN OMINOUS SILENCE

VISITORS NOT WELCOME

MANY WORKMEN LEAVING THE SUN'S Special Reporter ARAPUNI, Today. When the water ceased running over the spillway and the mighty turbines at the power-liouse faded out, a deep silence reigned at Arapuni, broken only by the triumphant sound of the rushing waters of the Waikato, where insistent pressure has forced a return to the old turbulent course in the gorge below. The silence at the headrace and the power-house, however, is nothing compared with the silence that reigns supreme at the Public Works headquarters across the gorge. Engineers converse almost with bated breath, and strangers within its gates are neither appreciated nor made welcome. A strained feeling is in the air and much discontent. ANGRY MUTTERINGS

The angry muttering of the men engaged in the tunnelling works broke the silence when the order to cease work was received. The men said that Mr. Williams, the union organising secretary, who was instrumental in having the work stopped, had never been inside any tunnel here and knew nothing of the nature of the work. It is understood that Mr. R. Semple on his arrival here tried to wave the union “big stick”* at the men, who, however, stuck to their guns, stating they were the union and not the organising secretary and that the work was quite safe. One man of 22 years’ experience of the job said it was one of the safest he had been engaged on. Mr. Semple, after an inspection of the work, agreed that it was quite safe. As a result the work was resumed and is now proceeding. The men held a meeting on Sunday evening, when, it is said, they spoke their minds very freely, threatening dire results to the organising secretary should he pay Arapuni another visit. On account of the present temperature of the Waikato River this is not considered likely. With all but a few tunnellers out of work, Arapuni township is also very quiet. A Dunsdin firm, which has a contract for steel lining the new penstocks has also stopped work, and yestercray a number of the men returned to Dunedin. Yesterday many men left Arapuni to seek work elsewhere, and others went today. "With the wages bill stopped a very quiet time is being experienced by local tradespeople. DAM DEWATERED Yesterday the dam was completely dewatered at the base, the diversion tunnel now taking the full flow of the river. The dam presents a curious sight, with its blackened walls still glistening from the last remaining effects of the long immersion. Almost at the bed of the dam the old swing bridge, erected when the construction was first put in hand to provide access across the bed of the river, still stands despite 200 ft of water. Above, men are engaged in drilling a big rock that has slipped away from the hillside and which poises precariously on the ledge above the diversion gates, emphasising the constant danger that exists of the tunnel becoming blocked in the event of floods bringing debris into tlie diversion gates. It is interesting to note that the water which flowed out of the bank on the headrace side below the dam, and which engineers said was a natural spring, has ceased now that the headrace has been dewatered. SCIENTIFIC SURVEY Geologists and members of the scientific party—Dr. E. Marsden, Dr. R. Marshall. Dr. J. Henderson, and Professor J. Bartrum —are busy surveying the country between the head* race and the powerhouse, where the presence of a strong flow of water is strongly suspected. Rumour, of course, is very busy, this having increased correspondingly with the turning off of the water, and the silencing of the engineers. As a check to the movement of the hillside, a plumb-line is swung from the swingbridge. Rumour hath it that this has shown movements in both directions, and also that the weight of the machinery in the powerhouse has dragged the penstocks out of alignment, where they connect at

the powerhouse; but nothing official is known, Rumours of a crack at the powerhouse also continue, despite Mr. Semple’s denial. The residents are hopeful that repair works will shortly be put in hand, and that Arapuni, even if it entails the complete concreting of the headrace, and steel lining to make it absolutely independent of the influence of the very unstable country, will again bo a hive of industry. Visitors who have viewed the dewatered headrace and spillway falls, however, cannot but be unfavourably impressed with the magnitude of this work, and the enormous, if not crippling, expense entailed.