; ARAPUNI PLANT.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 168, 17 July 1924, Page 8

; ARAPUNI PLANT.

■ / SUB-CONTRACT TO SWEDEN. • TRADE COMMISSIONER'S PROTEST. (By Telegraph!— Special to "Star.") : WELLINGTON, Wednesday. I Mr. W. Elmslie, British Trade Comi missioner, writing to the Wellington i "Evening Post" on the subject of the Arapuni contract; says:—"X read with ; regret a note published in your issue '■ on the supply of electrical equipment '■ for the Arapuni hydro electric installa- > tion, in which you state that 'In this '■ instance there -was no alternative but j to assign this portion of the manufac- ! ture to Sweden, as British firms were I not catering for this particular branch of high-powered electric plant.' This statement 'is not' in accordance with ' fact. There is no part of the plant required that cannot be supplied from factories in the United Kingdom, and, ' t to my knowledge, at least two British firms tendered for the contract as a , whole, and proposed to supply the necessary machinery practically entirely , from their own workshops." Mr. Elmslie further states: "In view of the important work that has.already been carried out in New Zealand by ' British firms, it should hardly be neces- ! sary to have to offer proof of capacity, but I should like to remind you that the •whole of the generators, transformers and high and low tension switehgear for the Mangahao power house and for the greater part of the whole of this scheme, which is to operate at the same voltage as the Arapuni plant, were manufactured in Great Britain; that the 110,000 volt transformers for Penrose sub-station are also being manufactured in British ■workshops outside New Zealand. Much work of a comparable class has been carried out by British electrical manufacturers, and it is generally recognised that the plant installed by them has given complete satisfaction, and has more than fulfilled the efficiency and performance specified."'