HYDRO-ELECTRIC DEVELOPMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 November 1919, Page 5

HYDRO-ELECTRIC DEVELOPMENT.

THE CLAIMS-PE! MANGANUI,. £

■A Hydro-electric development iras agalft' the subject of discussion at the AMtisll of the Aloa Road Board on Satttrfcii when .Mr. J. H. Lyon touched at h| length on the report of the ™ m ™MJ|j set up to consider objections by ilsfj Moa Koad Board to the New PlymoutjE Borough Council's scheme of electrical: development, and traversed the wtP deriee given before the commission.! Referring to Mr. Bartley's statement! that the cost of reticulation would he £950 per mile, Mr. Lyon said be had' been informed by Mr. Rhodes, man* aging director of the Waihi Gold atjn-. iug Company, that he (Mr. Rhodes/! would undertake to erect a lino carrying; a voltage of from 30,000 to 80,000' vpU?4 for £duo per mile, the cost of the Horaii Horn lines being £3OO per mile. TMere' was therefore a big discrepancy £3OO and £aw per mile. He consider*'! Ed that the Board's action in asking ftt* a commission ha<J been justified by th#/. I provision of the stipulation to revae tk* s [charges every five years either in the dk rection of decreasing or increasing the.' charges which, of course, was only 'fifty He further stated, on the authority a£ Mr. Rhodes, that the Hora Hora scheme"' cost less than £5 per horse power toj develop, although the company ontofe used WOO h.p., utilising a staff of sfcg men and a superintendent, who wnnof j.cope with the full power of 12,600. Jj.p£ as easily as with 3000 h.p. This cort' included 4:> miles of transmission line to Waihi. Before that the companjfj obtaned, its power from n. suction BM-' plant, using Huntly coal and develop* ing power for less than £K> per h.ps Mr. Rhodes ridiculed the idea of trani£ mission lines costing £DSO per Three wires of the diameter of a diildV slate pencil carried the whoie and h n wonld guarantee to erect th'eS transmission lines now for £SOO peri mile. These figures were handed to MfflK by a man whose opinion could not lightly estimated. Following out JroH»<i this they could see that £l2 per boJMe* power offered a huge and unwarrantable]; profit. The Waihi Company had *** ranged with the Government to take its? electrical supply at £5 10s per tarts'' power. Hamilton hoped to get power,; from Hora Hora at iUi per horse wnr«s He did not think that any on«J m the Moa district wanted to block to»* New Plymouth scheme or do anything unfair, but they did not want to Dtpnl vented from investigating theirSwSl rivers, and i n this connection he WOnlS move that an expenditure of £6O thill be disbursed with the object of assert taming the hydro-electric possibilities' of the Manganui and its tributaries aol! that Mr. Roche, C.E., of Cambridge, for asked to furnish a report on the earned Mr. Roche, he added, was the «Mrfnefc' ; who carried out the Hora Hora VorW' for the Waihi Company. He coj»sMv' ered that they owed it to the ratepayer*of the district to investigate the seMutej and he undertook, if the board VOte<R £SO, to obtain any additional aum by l ; subscription. ** •Mr. Bowler, in seconding, that th c money would be well spent '-i Mr. Hair agreed. , fajfi The chairman stated that he waa nil opposed to the scheme and would Sltt|3 port jt it he thought it would benejß? the district. If the New Plymouth scheme was developed there wae jbj'l doubt thnt later on it would be taken's over by the Government, therefore, "h»i questioned if it would be necessary tol develop their own scheme. . •-'| Mr. Lyon said Mr. Roche had agreed! to ■furnish"a report for £SO and «xl penses. He thought the report should! , be obtained, as it would .-show they Mil made an effort to obfiiin power themselves, and would he an argument! in favor of the formation of a vovrM hoard. Moreover, the report wourf ■&*§ valuable for all time. There was al|o?| the possibility that a clever engtne«i might find an undreamt of scheme thro would give them cheaptr power. thaj: ense thej would find business tiMteJ pie and factories willing to take it. M Mr. Hunter thought that if they couidl get power cheaper than from New PmS month they were entitled to do to.-!.!! Mr. Todd ask'edsjibw many Bites tnerftl were suitable on.'the Manganui fHvnl There must be ferine, or the people M New Plymouth would not be blookteM them to get hold of it, and IngUwoodl also. ja The chairman considered ihat if thejsl did find a cheaper "scheme at tbtf| Manganui, the New Plymouth BekenM would be ready so much sooner, and tMJ people along the line were so anXtottM to obtain power that they would tat»| it at whatever price, and they wouttv hav e no one to sell their power to. ~ t M In the course of further discussion Mrjj Lyon remarked that if they had »oßj»*J thing up their sleeve when negotlatlmf for power they would probably get iSm ter terms. >fl The motion was then carried, la tttntfl ber remarking that they had beard aef much about the Manganui, that Itl would be worth £SO to find out what 111 Was made of. ■ - .'a A committee consisting of the «h|)|fH man, Messrs Lvon wai "tfgl Ut tA air«u» faj Jhj jggorj, - .^M