HIGHWAYS AND HYDROELECTRICITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1919, Page 7

HIGHWAYS AND HYDROELECTRICITY.

From New York the Wellington city engineer (Mr W. H. Morton) has written to the Mayor (Mr J; P. Luke) stating that he had done a lot of travelling and had _ seen many wonderful things. He had just been to Niagara, and the most wonderful thing there was the vastnesß of the Bcale on which they utilised the water power. In the utilisation of the water power Canada seemed to . have done much better than U.S.A.,' as the former appeared to have most of the power at this disposal. The city of Chicago had, however, been draining a large amount of water from the lake, and they diverted it into a canal which connected Lake Michigan with the Illinois River. The water was being used for diluting the sewage of Chicago, which is ultimately (by way of the canal and the Illinois River) discharged into the Mississippi River. The inference in the letter is that the ac tion of Chicago in operating so heavily on Lake Michigan had reduced the body of water at Niagara. Mr Morton writes that .the asphalt streets and highways were very fiije, and have greatly encouraged the uje of automobiles. There was one car to every twelve persons in the cities, and owners were charged an annual license fee of from 2s 0d to 3s| per nominal horse-power (the charge varying slightly in the different States), and such money was utilised for the upkeep of the roads. The cost of laying down these asphalt roads was borne by the owner whose property abutted on to it, and they were even taxed to pay for the maintenance of the same. Mr Morton was greatly impressed with the American power-hoiißes, but had found nearly evary city dependent on a bydroeleetrifc scheme, with the possibilities of whjeh. he was now much more impressed than he had ever been before.