The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 2, 1903 WATER AND ELECTRICITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 52, 2 March 1903, Page 2

The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 2, 1903 WATER AND ELECTRICITY.

A few days ago mention wis made of the fact that ihe people of li'gltiwco-} bad induced Mr Alio, the e'ectrioul expert now in the cslony, to visit Inglewood and report on the electrical energy capable of being transmitted to Ingle,weed from some of the streims in the neighbourhood. Mr Alto was in New Plymouth a short time ago, yet no t fforts appear to have been made to get his opinion on the question and advisabili'y of transmitting electrical energy for traction and motive power to New Plymouth. This is to be regretti d and we should suggest that bafoie he leaves the colony his advice shru'd b8 secured. Mr Alio is an expert whose opinion is absolutely reliable and invaluable, and we believe that sufficient power could be transmitted ilong three copper wires from " Bel's Falls " to provide traction power far tramways and motive power for machinery to phed New Plymouth on an equality with any city iu the world. If New Plymouth is to prosper hs it. should, such visits as Mr Allq's should be taken advantage of in every possible way. That the proposition for the application to traction u?rs of the vast water power now running to waste in the colony is quite practicable is showu by the increasing uses of the world at large. A private company is harnessing the Waipori River to its! dynamos, ar.d proposts to carry e!ec-j trical power over 38 miles of wire to Dunedin City. Five thous vnd! howe-power is thus being easily obtained, the dam required only 58ft wide by Bft in depth. This is an illustration of what can be done upon what is now an exceedingly small sc.ile, though a few years ago it would cave boon regarded as monumental. In America, apart from the famous Niagara Power House, so suddenly and tragically shattered by lightning a few days ago, | many thousands of horse-power are carried for 220 miles into Sm Francisco, with a loss of only 25 p?r cent, by leakage, while the street cars i f Oakland, California, are pullai by a Sierra waterfall situated 189 miles *,way. Swi zsrland, land of mountains .ind mountain streams, from whence comes Mr Alio, olir visiting expert, has excelled in iha now science, and carries electricity for long distances. And over f he Alps from Switzerland, in Northern Italy, the new power has actually been r.pplind to railways, as we contend it fhonld and could be applied in New Z.alrind, In the Italian Alps, at Laks <'omo,ftoin Lecca to Chisvenna, with a branch line, an electrical raH a ly, 100 miles long, is in full operation. " It has passenger trains and goods trains, fast

trains and slow trains, just like an ordinary railway, but electricity tikes the place of steam." There is another similar lice from Bologna to San Felice. The Italian Minister for Railways has announced that the Government will allow the line to bo extended from Like Onmo to Milan, and asserts that the electrification of the Italian railways sys'em is foreshadowed. None can watoh the growth of electrical science, as applied to mechanics, withiout realising that in the near future [the marvellous motor will be our everyday servant, moving every en-gine-crank and i evolving every axle. Every fallen stream becomes a feeder to modern electiic trunk wires, supplying power at a merely nominal work-1 iug cost after the expense of dyuamoinstallation is met. The French e'ecnicians calculate that in the French Alps alone three million horse power are available, a power which would require seventeen million tans of coal to produce through the steam engine. In southern Norway over a million horse power are available, and already water m ide electricity is being carried on to Ohiistiania. The United States has already taken possession of over 130,000 horse power at her waterfalls, and with the decade will hive multiplied it many fold. The Auckland Be/raid points out that there is no country in the world more generally and widely supplied with water p jwe:' than our islands, ridged from end to end with mountain chains, and blessed wi hun unfailing rainfall. 1 here is said to be at least 40,000 horse-power available at Huki, iu one confiaed >pot. But this is but one instance, which, as demand increased, and engineering outlay became justified, could be incalculably added to. With the enormous power, now running to waste, contained in "Bails Falls" transmitted to Ne* P ymiu'h, it would supply a cheap motive or traction power which would be of great advantage in hundreds of ways in New Plymouth, and in con riec.ion with the harbour, and every effort should be raad-i to fi'd ou'i if such an tffort is possible and feasibly.