MIGHTY WATER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 239, 6 October 1923, Page 7

MIGHTY WATER.

HARNESSING THE WAIKATO. GKEAT AHAPimi SCEEM3. PRELIMINARrES IS HAND. The preliminaries for the great Arapmri hydro-electrical scheme whence the Auckland and Taranaki provinces are to receive their main supply of electric power as from 1928. are now bain;; actively prosecuted by the Public Works Department. The Access Road. Located on the Waikato River, nine miles from the Kotonui railway, as Putarnru, the Arapiiiri Gorge in the past has been accessible only over settlera' roads, which are fairly steep in places. One of the first stepß.tliereiore, was to" provide good access to the Gorge, and a firat-clase metal road on easy grades throughout is being constructed. A total of £28,000 is being spent on this work, of -whirh £17,000 has been voted for the current financial year. For the first two and a quarter miles or so from the Putaruru station the ronte adopted 'is the present local road, thence an entirely new road is Ijeing made to the Gorge. The two and a quarter miles referred to are already mostly metalled, with soft rock —the local rhyoßte—and one firm of contractors is now bnsfly engaged finishing off -with King Country shingle. Of the new deviation a good length, has already been completed in. one contract, and another has been let for the sanding of this, while a further cenatract, covering the formation of the la.ftportioT!, is in hand. In addition, a number of bridges have to be erected to gire proper crossings over streams en route. Suitable local shingle for Tnnferiting the. new formation has been foirad nearby, and quarry men nave been put os to make it available. As soon. ag properly consolidated, the new formation will be metalled with this, and on the completion of the bridges the new road will be. an actuality. This should be in about four or five months' time, as in February next tenders for the first and main portion of the Arapuni scheme, namely, the erection of the headwßrka, dose, and then, it should not be long before the euoceaeful tenderer wiJLeoinnieilce'tains" porting over the road the enonnonß a.mrmnt. of material that he- will require in the Tirey of . Erases fur the Staff. M Hie dam site Seeff-BWHiwlBTe, too, work in fle form of the erection of residences, etc-, Jtoer the permanent officials is to hand. jLhsfOß&iar the resident engineer, Mr, Kafeone, wae completed some days ago, sod tenders, re(uxnaKle this week, are now called, fcr the erection of three more eottagcMad ■» Bet oX offices!. Electricity forAnd surely the day of electricity tea come, for the installation of the great electric-power scheme to be done mainly by electricity* Exffln, Borahora, the "baby" scheme eozne tnSee down stream, a power line hafl been dnJy erected right to the ArarflwH dam Etc, and thence thrown across the garga, and down stxaam & short vtf i*> tbe poiKsrhonee Bite. 'From this Sue the power for working the excaseiine inaiftrinpa, concrete tp ll ?** l *"* -j will oe obt&ioed, and the necessary transformer for the purpose was carted oat to the rite thi» wrrfc. - n.. r .•■*.. ...'L^ The Big Conception, Tf*r<~ \ Thns is the Department jeepelug for the great day, when the contract dull have been let, and this mighty Waiknio River, racing in mad riot of unharnessed strength through this deep gorge of xocfebound beetling eßffs, 150 ft *"gh and lightly dad with bash 7 shall find suddenly opening against it on the east aide a diversion tunnel of big proportions, which, too, has already been commenced. This will conduct the river under the cihl and round and out again, tea.nag the site for the dam iij. Then is to arrise this gigantic dam, broad at tim base sod tapering at the top 7 but moulded, literally on & curve, presenting a. breast tipstream* Honeycombed liglitry with vb^ , tical and lateral tunnels —in order thai examinations may be made of It through out at any time—it will thus also em body a miniature mine set in concrete, while the top will comprise a solid concrete roadway, 17 feet vide, giving a great new highway, crossing at this pan of the river and twinging country suci as Maungatautari, Ptkeatna, WJtxrcpxthunga, etc. now only sjjajsely settled, owing to their remoteness from the Main Trunk railway, into easy distance of the Rotorua railway at Pntarurii- This phase is keenly appreciated hy tie settlers concerned, who, within the lost fortnight have held a conference -with their county councillors, cotxnty engineer, and public works engineer, to arrazige far readings from their territories to cossect with the dim crossing and. thence to Putaruru. Then, the dam thaly completed, the . river will be shut back an to its anginal , course, and stroking this impenetrable barrier will gradually rise cp on it, backing its waters for 18 miles and forming a. long lake that in its torn will J give good water access to another great j stretch of partially-developed Upper I Waikato country. Finally, sear the tcp of the dam the waters will find their new—but strangely old—outlet in tba form of an oi<3 course on **>*» -western bank at the top of the gorge, where, scientists tell us, the riser need centuries ago to run brfcra. Thru takes a line away from the gorge at first, bat further down returns to the river EJte. Somewhere about mid-way along aa overflow weir will bo ewrnnrtered, thin giving a "head" over tunnels leading downward through the intervening ground out to the gorge sgain at a spot where a land of terrace wiQ accommodate the powar-honse. The mighty rush of water down these tunnels will be the force that will operate the generating machinery, evolving tbe I electricity that is to provale power, light J and heat for home and industry tbxoughi out the great and progressing provinces lof Auckland and Taxanaki. Such then, is a layman's conception of this great scheme, as formed from descriptions given on the ground by the experts. And as the Government has contracted with the Auckland Power : Board to supply electricity to Auckland by 1928 from Araptmi, a palaxy of interest will apply to the nert four years of hydro-electrical science, for not only is the Arapuni scheme several tirnea larger than any other hydroelectrical schPTTic in (he Diminim, b;:t it possesses distinctive features that will make it a splendid triumph of man's ingenuity in the utilisation of tbe mighty forces ef Nafcnxe for his own I benefit.