HYDRO-ELECTRICITY.
THE PROPOSED SURVEY. REJECTED BY THE COUNCIL, FIVE VOTES TO FOUR. Some time ago the consulting engineers to the New Plymouth Borough Council (Messrs. Blair Mason and lx;e) reported that they had made an insppetioif of the country between the new hydro-electric works and the mountain, and had seen sufficient to warrant « fuller survey and closer examination in order to definitely ascertain the extent of the additional water power and storage facilities to be obtained. They suggested for the consideration of the council the widening of No. 2 tunnel and making certain additions to the forebay in anticipation of securing extra water power. The general manager warmly supported the suggestion, which, however, was turned down by the council. A deputation of influf?ntia! ratepayers thereupon had a round-table conference with the council, which, after further consideration, re-affirmed their previous decision.
Then the Cliamber of Commerce and the Ratepayers’ Association took up thj» matter, and as a result waited upon th? council last Monday evening, stressing the advisability of’ having the survey made, (her? being so much attaching to the> availability of extra power. The council decided to again reeonsidethe question, and last night finally disposed of it, the proposal to have a survey made being defeated by 5 vote* to 4. and the following motion, moved by the Mayor, was carried:— “That having regard to the fact that the council is carrying out a scheme approved by the ratepayers, which it deems expedient to bring to fruition as soon as possible, the deputation be informed that the council cannot un dertake any other work that may tend to delay this result.” MOVE FOR A SURVEY.
When the ordinary business of the council was concluded last night the Mayor (Mr. F. E. Wilson) referred to the deputation which had waited on the council, and told councillors that it would be necessary to decide that night on their answer to the deputation.
Or. V. Griffiths: What would a survev cost?
The Mayor: That ha« not been asked, but as a matter of fact it is impossible to forecast. The engineer® could not say how long it would take, and therefore the cost could not he fixed. Or. T. N. Blackball: Are w? now to reopen the whole question? The Mayor: We must, reply to the deputation. After some hesitation by councillors to initiate a discussion Cr. Blackball moved that the consulting engineers be instructed to make a. survey with a view to obtaining further supplies of water. He remarked that after hearing such a strong deputation express a desire for a survey he thought the council was war ranted to entail the expense. Ur. R. L. Parkin seconded pro forma.
Cr. W. Rum ball thought it was first necessary to .see whether the water could be had at a reasonable rate, and, if so, the council would be justified in reconsidering the position. Cr. J. Brown opposed thift, remarking that all the surveying in the world was no good unless they knew what the ultimate work would cost.
The Mayor reminded, councillors that the financial side of the present undertaking was not healthy; the council had raised two loans, but there was another still to be floated, and he pointed out how the original estimate had grown. If extra water was found—and that was problematical—it was going to cost a tremendous lot of money to get it. From the aspect of finance he was afraid We were going to overload this scheme, sp that instead of it being a financial success it was going to prove a millstone. If the extra water was found to be there the council would have to find an additional £B5OO for the larger tunnel. “When we want more than the present scheme produces we will he able to get it cheaper from the Government, and for that reason I do not feel justified in spending £3OO to have a survey made,” added the Mayor. VOICE OF CITIZENS.
Cr. Griffiths said a survey would be useless unless it was accompanied by estimates o e f the cost involved to procure the extra water. On the other hand if there were any means of obtaining a survey, accompanied by an estimate of the cost of getting the water, he would favor a survey being made. He then moved: “That a survey be made to ascertain whether additional water can be obtained and at what cost.” Cr. Griffiths considered that it was not necessary to go further than that at this stage, and if the survey was decided upon they could then go into the question of whether the bigger scheme would pay. He emphasised that the council could not afford to ignore ttye pleas of the deputation, which comprised leading ratepayers and represented a large section of the community. A week had passed since the deputation had waited on the council and since then he had not heard a word of opposition to the case made out by the deputation. He thought they could assume from this that public opinion supported the views of the deputation.
Cr. Rumball seconded this motion, whereupon Cr. Blackball withdrew his original motion in favor of that moved by Cr. Griffiths. Cr. J. Brown suggested a subsidiary scheme to meet the requirements of Mr. Leggatt (representing the English firm requiring power for the ironsand industry). The present scheme, he thought, should be solely utilised for the provision of power for local users, which was now much below the demand.
The motion was then put and lost by 5 votes to 4, the voting being:—
For—Crs.’Griffiths, Blackhall, Rumball and Large. Against—The Mayor, Crs. Kibby. Dingle. Brown and Parkin. The Mayor’s motion (as above) was then carried without discussion.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19210830.2.57
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Taranaki Daily News, 30 August 1921, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
954HYDRO-ELECTRICITY. Taranaki Daily News, 30 August 1921, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Taranaki Daily News. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.