THE HYDRO-ELECTRICITY WORKS.
It is typical of the New Plymouth Borough Council to blame others for its own laches. It has become quite a habit. On Monday various members found fault with the engineers over the progress of the hydro works, which they seemed to think should have been completed at the end of the year, but which the engineer pointed out, will not be out of hand until April. There is no difficulty in sheeting home the blame. Eighteen months ago the engineers recommended making provision for a fourth pipe line to the power house, entailing the enlargement of No. 2 tunnel. The council resisted the suggestion until the ratepayers, at a poll, decided in its favor. By its unreasonable and obstinate behaviour over this mar-teT, which called for immediate decision, at
least six months was wasted, for until the size of the tunnel was determined the valves, etc., could not be ordered, and, as a matter of fact, only came to hand in September last. The consequences of this delay were repeatedly brought before the council, but without avail. There was another cause of delay. Land easements were required from a property owner in order to drive No. 2 tunnel, and to work from four headings instead of one. The council was advised on several occasions to take the land under the Public Works Act. It did not do so, but let things slide until it. found itself in a fix, and then hurriedly agreed to pay the owner no less a sum than £1250 for rights which no compensation court in the world Would have awarded more than £250. The sheer loss of £lOOO of the ratepayers’ good money waa not all. The work of boring the tunnel had to be confined to the one heading, involving a loss in time of several months. This could easily have been saved had the council heeded the advice of its responsible officers. Now the council turns on the engineers, and plaintively cries “that the consulting engineers be informed that the council learns that the works will not be completed until April next, and asks them to suggest ways and means to expedite completion.” The mischief has been done, and loss already incurred through the council’s own blundering, and ratepayers should know the position, also that when the works are completed hundreds of horsepower will be running to waste because of the failure of the council to take up the selling of the power when it had the opportunity, thus causing a loss to the borough very difficult to estimate, and making the completion of the. bigger scheme (and thereby lowering the overhead charges) an impossibility for the next decade.
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Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1922, Page 4
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450THE HYDRO-ELECTRICITY WORKS. Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1922, Page 4
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