The Daily News THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27. UTILISATION OF WATER POWER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 58, 27 February 1908, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27. UTILISATION OF WATER POWER.

Fur the past -ix or seven years the J (ioveiniucnt. has given a kind of furtive I iilleiitiun to the utilisation 01' tin' 1 abundant sources of power at present | riniiiiii" uselessly to waste in our rivers. I In his statement to the d.'|iutation that I wailed upon him at Hamilton the other I .1-iv Sir Joseph Ward. confessed tliat 1 ilhtc was :i time when he l.clicvcd the ] rivers could he utilised for il hHJUV I tication of the railways; lion he led his I hearer- to conclude tlint that tune had 1 passed iiwav. It is -unu'wliat singular that with an Opposition that prides lt--1 self upon it- industry and its. valance no ,ritici-u, has hecn given to the si ,lc ,lts that fell Horn the Premier. .Mr.

M«*-'.v. \tU UmnH" iilM'iit ><Jiiali>tu. iiv prulialilv | lliinkinK-in \i«'\v of the I'M-tu." I llii- vi-iir-llml it is iiKJit- (ii-'ilitiilili' 1" rrtvi-'n.'Miiit lUiifroi- timt. 1111 not Ihri'iiUM) thiil <'xi-t "lily '« iina n 'iiiiiii l iii--liii> mi liini' tn Wii-li' miou Mich ;i |in>sin- ! -ulij.'ii us tin' utilisation "i our "a''' l ' I ,„,»■,-,■.

>ir J»,eph Ward alliim. that lire ul'.ligation of our Hater power will eo-t tinDominion no less thai <"yl't '"•>" and this Parthian shot, apparently so demoralised tile members ot the deimUtion that not one ol them had a word to say. If Sir Joseph Ward had been Premier when some enterprising

spirit tirst proposed lo construct a rail way in this country he would, »" "0" 1 ' 1 - have asserted that to build railways m ' New Zealand would cost some lifty or 1 sixtv millions, and so crushed llie audieimi's aspircr with a blow. Tin' I'miner chose to assume that il wis seriously proposed to undertake all the suggested schemes at once, and the eight millions iof which he talked were to Ik- added lo our indebtedness at a stroke, if, say, the suggested schemes averaged an expenditure ol <iie.li, then Sir Joseph Ward's eight million- woul.l provide lor the completion of no less Ui .11 thirty-two schemes. Jusl as nobody was ever mad enough to suggest thai New Zealand should start the consum- | lion of the whole of her railways ai the same time, and expend the whole I! sixty millions in a lew years, so as yet nolKidy has been siillicienily demented t» suggest that all the proposed schemes for water power utilisation should be proceeded with immediately. In his idle talk about eight millions, Mir Joseph Ward simply -'bluffed" the deputation, and he did il with quite remarkable I success.

It is matter fur regret, too, that his ingenuousness in the matter of water power not paying cannot be regarded as a proper subject for praise. Some years ago the Seddon Government called in a thoroughly competent and recognised authority on the subject of water power and employed him to analyse and report on several" of the leading schemes suggested. The «hole of the facts and ligures submitted by Mr- Alio cannot, of course, lie dealt with here, but in his report of 2nd March, limit, be put down the cost of harnessing the H»ka I'-'H-YVaikalo river, at £20.H,:500 (including installation, .CMU.OOO), the working expenses .£3030 per annum, and tin- annual profit CiI.OOII. The cost of utilising lor power purposes the Waiuiakariri, he set down at ,£2-iO,OOO, the working expenses £IOOO, and the profit i"JL--000. Here are two schemes involving an expenditure of about .£OOO.OOO. returning an annual clear profit of about grave doubts upon the profitableness of such works. Everybody, of course, knows that the waters of the Niagara have been successfully harnessed, and that from Niagara powerful' currents have been rallied some two hundred miles with great pmlit to the invc-tor-in such undertakings.

It is true that we in New Zeal I hue not the large towns, (lu- thronging populations of America, but in not any of our suggested schemes will the est. of construction be so large nor the distance over which the power will require to be carried so great. In our railways we have already an assured B nd very pi\.titable customer awaiting tl d'ven! of electric power, and who needs y dairy supply equal to four thousand hur-es-further, as if to put this question <>< profit. beyond all que-lion. Mr Alio pithily remark-: -'All over the world (lie has 1,-en estimated at 40 per cent." |i will be noticed that h.ve no excepiion is made, -all the world over." everywhere it ha- loon used, electii,- pow'er is forty per ,-ent eiieapi r than steam; vet. Sir -10-eph Ward throws ,-ojd water on the utilisation of our huge lateni re .source-. To turn from Sir .lo,eph U'avd to Mr. Ma«ey affords n„ present, relict ill (hi- connection. Mr. MaSsey- would he found declaring Hut for the Mile to embark on the construction of .-m-h works would b,. -ocialNtic to the high est degree, and therefore he is wludU opposed to Midi undertakings. It would be vain to tell him that Slate owned power works would b,. no more socialistic Ulan Slate-owned railways, for Improbably regards State-Owned railways as a huge socialistic blunder.