THE RECENT HYDRO-ELECTRIC CONFERENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 October 1918, Page 2

THE RECENT HYDRO-ELECTRIC CONFERENCE.

To the Editor. *<? Sii°, —Your naturally condensed report of tils conference of the above at Stratford on the 17tli does not bring out very clearly the true significance of the visit of Mr, Crabb, who attended on behalf of the Wellington Hydro-oJectric League. Mr. Crabb contended that the subsidiary schemes should bo dropped till such time as the Government had been forced to start and complete the Mangahao installation and that of the Waikato above Cambridge, and tliat the Taranaki district should wait to derive its power from those two sources. He further contended that the prosecution of local schemes would militate against the success of the two larger ones mentioned abovo. n stated that small schemes did not. p.: and that the Home Government were preparing to buy out all private enterprises and nationalise the generation of electrical power in Britain. It appeared to me, Sir, that an impudent attempt was being made to use the Tarar.aki Hydro-electric 'League as a catspaw and a lever to force the hand of the Government and to obtain by finesse and public money that which well be pushed forward and financed by wealthy cities themselves if they so desired, there being no bar to boroughs and cities .undertaking work of this kind, though at present other local bodies have no power to borrow or apply money to this purpose. Again, the proposal that Taranaki should wait to draw its power from either the Waikato and Mangahao (Shannon) schemes, can be put down for what it is worth when 1 state that, in the opinion of an expert, the loss of voltage over the distance traversed by the transmission lines would certainly Tun to- 40 per cent, of the total. By means of the proposed Bill -to empower local bodies to harness hydro-electric power, smaller schemes retieulatin™ their power without loss could be launched, and in. a short time supply the needs of dairy factories and other industries, as well as give light and power for farmers' holdings. Why, Sir, should this district lose thousands per annum with a splendid asset m the shape of rapid mountain streams: at its door for years for the chimerical benefits to be deiived from a scheme hundreds of miles distant and whose power would doubtless be absorbed by large towns en route or lost in'transmission? I sincerely hope our newly-fledged M.P will try his young wings on a fly with "The Local Bodies Hvdro-electrical Empowering Bill."—I am. etc,, 15. J. H. LYON. "Oakleigh,'' Waitui.