HYDRO-ELECTRIC GENERATION

Taranaki Daily News, 25 August 1919, Page 2

HYDRO-ELECTRIC GENERATION

to the Editor. Sir,—May I compliment Mr. Bartlov upon tho very lucid and able report published In yrmr columns. As, however, it deals chiefly Willi retail or reticulation charges, It has no bearing on tho statements and .contention* of my previous letter which dunk with first hand bflk power. One. point made much of is the pi oposed Increaso In rates promoted hy Sir B.rks. Ho definitely sets'out in his report the causes thus: "And It will be clearly seen •hey are not Increased to recoup losses but rather chiefly because of enhanced prices and stoppage of development by tho war." The r.ilcs for tho supply of electric power have not been Increased during tho past year In flpito of the Increasing cost of labor, ainount■|'f from 10 to 20 per cent over pre-war rates end, of materials, amounting to SO to 300 per cent over pre-war rates. Of the alternative sources of light, heat and power, kerosene has Increased by 112 per cent. (I.e. from 8s to 17s), gas by 1(1 per cent (from lis Gc. to (Is Sd per thousand feet), and coal by 71 per cent, (front 35s to 80s per ton). But in order to ousuro the most economical use of the limited power available and to enable Uto> benefits of electrical supply to be extended as far as the generating plant In service will permit, It Is essential that every unit should be utilised with Increasing cure, The fiost effective way to do this would be to ralSe the selling rates irrespective of the cost of production. Hut apart from this, the (•■flrlctlon In the output duo to the difficulty In obtaining additional plant during the war lias prevented the increased cost of supply being counter-balanced by Increased output, and In view of the above figures showing it;at tho plant Is not yet paying its way there Is .every reason for the consldernton of an increase In tho selling rates." This definitely disposes of the inaccurate rendering by Mr Clark of the reasons for raising the above You have heard Mr Clark's version of mj utterances at tho Stratford conference; now tako mine When Mr Todd and myself riarhed the mcotlng wo found It practically dominated by a delegate from Pahnerstott senit by the Chamber of. Commerce, 1 hcliove. This man endeavored to induce the delegates to support the Mangahao-Arapunl installation and to sink all subsidiary schemes in Taranaki till tho completion and Uniting up of the above, which might take twenty years To this I objected, and as a proof of this tako tho newspupor cutting produced by Mr Clark which refers to "tho big scheme." Now to correct Mr Clark's deliberate ntempt to discredit tho Manganul source of supply. There were five estimates to augment their supply n.ado by Mr Irwin Crookes, consulting engineer for tho Inglewood Borough Manganul was the largest of these, but though only using a small part of the water tho horse-power developed (678 hp), was too much for tho borough's requirements though the estimated cost was very low Indeed.. This power was not turned down for the reasons It Is evident Mr Clark hoped your readers would Infer. The honor of Initiating this scheme and the formation of a power board does not belong to as stated by Mr Clark, as it started in :he Kalmata Farmers' Union discussions. If Intemperate and unsupported statements together with cheap sneers and jibs are any indication, I am afraid Mr Clark's terra of "levered anger" could well apply to himself. However, I intend to deal with the arguments ,iut forward and will undertake to show that under combined power board management as provided by the Act of 1918, or undo* State development, there are ample outlets for power generated, not merely. frotn the borough's present source, but from every available scheme In Turanakl If only approximately near those of Lake Coleridge rates obtain.— I am, etc., J. H. LYON.