HYDRO-ELECTRICAL GENERATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1919, Page 2

HYDRO-ELECTRICAL GENERATION.

v To the Editor. In the interval of waiting for the answer to tlio deputation re (lie wheel tax, the Mayor tf New Plymouth intimated that the city electrical engineer would glee an outline of the .proposed hydro'-electrlcal extension. After exhibiting a plan of n very extensive and evidently very progressive schome, the Mayor Intimated the borough was prepared to enter Into contracts of supply to boroughs, and power bonrds. The chairman of an adjacent county ijsked what they proposed to charge for the power, and was met by a Tevy evasivo answer to the effect that prices would be arranged with the different bodle3 requiring power. I asked whether they had not already priced power, and made a contract for a term of years with the Inglewood borough. The answers were so roundabout over a simple matter tbat I stated—it was not denied—that Inglewood had agreed to take a maximum of 300 horse-power at £l2 per horse-power per annum; and I further stated that the Government were supplying power to Chrlstchurch city from Lake Coleridge at £4 IDs per horse-power per annum. These facts were not disputed, bat another city councillor stated that the Government lost £30.000 on the working of the Lake Coleridge plant last year. I would very much like to know where this gentleman gets his Information, and I also want to ask whether the rotlcence with regard to Information on the inner running of this borough scheme Is due to the fact that, with an Installation costing £160,000, and developing 8000 horse-power: Now Plymouth Borough proposes to extract a gross Income of nearly £IOO,OOO per annum from the surrounding boroughs and counties of Taronnki Provincial District. It doea not seem to have occurred to the promoters of this undertaking, that they are, at a time when exploitation as applied to profiteering and monopoly Is particularly distasteful to the nation, really absorbing a national asset to be sold at largely onhanced profit for the benefit of one small town. Jf the scheme is of the mognltude staled, why not have invited all counties and boroughs to constitute themselves power boards under the Act of 1918, to devolop and share and project which they admit they cannot extend by themselves? It appears clear to mo that by these semi-secret agreements to sell power and fasten the Subscribing local bodies to a several years' contract, at a price nearly treble that charged by the State, the Borough of New Plymouth Is obtaining a very safe Investment and big profits at no risk to itself. If the risks were great no one would object to a commensurate profit, but no chance Is left for failure when one horse-power which costs twenty pounds to develop returns twelve pounds profit In the first and succeeding years of working. „Contrast this, too, with the fact that the partially developed Lalto Coleridge scheme has cost £45 per horse-power for development and a certain amount of reticulation. Tet in 1918 Lake Coleridge .power coßt Btx pounds per kilowat year, or in other words £4 10s per horsepower per annum. The proposed New Plymouth scheme being ..identical in slzo, wo are able to make fairly accurate comparison in' the approximate running costs nad returns. Lake Coleridge has cost, up to date, a little, over £4rio,ooo, yet the State. U, content with £31,040 for the sale of thi 'flhergy dovcloped. Contrast this, if you will, with the profit 0f'096,000-sought-by the New- Plymouth Borough for exactly the sumo consideration as to current, and a,third tess capital expenditure. Again, various, working expenses amount in the Lake Coleridge scheme ' to £14,448,.and lf we take this as the annual ■outlay on the New Plymouth supply, plus Interest .on ,£160,000, and a, moderato amount foe dcprodatlbn of plSiht.'SeW' Plyniduth shoiiltf be • a rate free city in the near future and with ' something; of a'bnlnmio/overt , .Not merely con- ' tent to wage competition It appears to me that , an attempt Is being made to blanket any small- ' er local bodies'; scheme,- as witness the' Wort to extend tjie-lr license to cover the greater-por-tion of the proposed' Inglewbod CiSunty area, in ' fcwhlch an effort is being made to establish a 1 (power house for local stipply.,- I\ httveYmerely [ sketched the salient points of the above matter, i [ and hope a more able pen will write you to : f frustrate, If possible, (he exploitation of a na- • itlonal asset which should provide cheap light, lieat and power to every man, woman and child In proximity to or within the scope -of' its reticulation.—l am, etc., < , j, , "{' ' JOHN LYOJf, Waitui, July 28. (Mr Jas. Clarke, chalrmnn of the Electric Light Commlttep, Interviewed in regard to the above letter, stated that If Mr. Lyon could find a ' scheme that could provide electricity cheaper than New Plymouth then he should certainly go on with it. It was not a question of what profit New Plymouth could make, b\it' a question of being able to supply cheaper than from any other source. Mr. Lyon, said Mr. Clarke, hnd evidently fallen into the trap on electrlcol quotations that nine out of ten novices foil Into !f they Attempted to draw up a scalo of electrical charges without a full and scientific knowledge of tlio principles on which those charges were based. There were, contlnued Mr Clarke, numerous inaccuracloj in the letter. Mr. Lyon referred to a councillor whi..h C °h? r i. f hlmM,f <Mr Carke), in rJi nt 1 alle ßed to have stated that (he Lake Coleridge scheme had lost £30,000 in one cZrM.™.! Mr C J"" e ™ that Z , (W .I, !ctl6ma h «d lost £33,000 In .he tost three years of its working, after writ ncl T . e lf Bmnii depreciation, via., 2 per cenfi New Plymouth, considering Mil. , •wttog OS om S m 199 £