COSTING TOO MUCH.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1922, Page 3

COSTING TOO MUCH.

HYDRO-ELECTRIC SCHEMES. DR NEWMAN’S FOREBODINGS. A rather gloomy view of the prospects of hydro-electric development in this country was presented by A. K. Newman (Wellington East) in the House of Representatives on Thursday night. The member suggested that the Dominion was spending too much money on the schemes, and that the power, when it became available. would be too expensive for the peotrie who were expected to use it. ’ I fear that the cost of producing hydroj electricity in New Zealand is going to be . more than we can afford to pay,” said Dr. : Newman. Mr. E. Parry, our greatest | authority, said after very’ careful s‘”dy • that the Mangahao scheme would cost ! about £438,000 to complete. I believe that ' it is going to cost all of £2,000,000, and the ■ cost of distribution is going to be enor!mo us. I have heard that the distribution 1 of the power in the Wairarapa is going to i cost £200,000, and there will only be 2000 1 horse power to deliver there. . . . The peo- ! pie who expect to use the power will not be prepared® to pay three or four times ■ what a gas engine would cost them. • “A leading engineer from Britain went j into our schemes and reckoned that it ( would cost the Dominion about £63,000,000 i to carry out all the schemes that were | being put in hand. That would be utterly ' impracticable. I know that new ideas are not welcomed in certain quarters, es- . peciaßy professional quarters, but I hope that the Government will have very full ; inquiries made before it undertakes the erection of the Arapuni dam. The Huka falls and other possible sources may be better and cheaper.” Dr. Newman add?d . that in some of the older countries the • production of electric power by the burning of low-grade coals at the pit’s mouth was proving cheaper than hydro-electric 1 development except under the most favorable conditions.