WATER POWER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 243, 13 October 1910, Page 7

WATER POWER.

GOVERNMENT SCHEME OUTLINED. TO COST TWO MILLIONS. fßy Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. On. the second reading of the Aid to Water Powear Works Bill, proposing a loan of £500,000, the Prime Minister outlined pTooosale for the development of the Dominion's water power Dy the Government. He stated that the expenditure would be £1,975,000, for which £60,000 would be for surveying. He gave the following details for different localities:— Otago, 10,000 horse power, to 'be developed from the Teviot at a cost of £300,000, including cost of transmission. 'Southland, 10,000 horse power, from Lake Hauroto, at a cost of £350,000. Canterbury, 10,000 horse power, from Lake Coleridge, at a cost of £270,000.. thoughly ultimately 25.000 horse power could be developed. West Coast, 3000 horse power, by an extension of the Kirinara. water race.

The Midlands railway tunnel would be worked by electricity developed in Canterbury, and would ausorb 1000 horse power. Wellington and suburbs, 10,000 horse power, to be developed at the Hutt, at a cost of £30,000. Paktrerston, Feilding, Dannevirke, and Masterton, 6000 horse power, to he developed at Makuri Gorge, at a cost of £200,000. Auckland City and southern part of province, including Bay of Plenty and Waikato, 10,000 horse power, to be developed at Kaituna, at a cost of £320,000.

North of Auckland, 3000 horse power, at a cost of £100,000, 4o be developed from the W-airoa Falls.

Sir Joseph Ward added that the three first propositions to be undertaken would be those at Lake Coleridge, Kaituna, and Hutt, -which would be begun simultaneously. The surveys of these would be .begun without delay, and the whole of the schemes would be finished within four years. The loan expenditure in that period would he half a million per annum. Sir Joseph Ward' reviewed the present scales of charges to consumers of electric power in the various places where it is now available. Dunedin was the lowest, but he stated' that the Government would be able to make a profit by charging 2d. per unit for light and Id. per unit for power, -which was lower even than in Dunedin.