HORAHORA'S GENESIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 249, 20 October 1924, Page 7

HORAHORA'S GENESIS.

FARMING IN THE SEVENTIES. WAIHI G.M. CO. S FORESIGHT. HARNESSING TTTE RAPID?. (From Our Own Correspondent.) TK AWAMUTI', Wednesday. Some interesting information bearing on a fanning enterprise in the Horahora district is to lmnd from Mr. Andrew Kay, of Parawera. Mr. Kay says he jotted down the particulars from memory, but mentions that the farts are correct, though he is not quite so confident about , the other details, such as dates. How- j ever, the information is interesting. -Mr. Kay states that in the seventies of last century, half a hundred years ago, two brothers named Fergtiflson. nephews of the | then Governor. Sir James Fergwson (mm therefore cousins of the Governor-Oenrral elect, Major-General Pir Charles rYrguscon) took up a block of virgin '-and on the left bank of the Wnikato River. The block included the site of the argo hydro-electric power-station at Horahora, some sixteen miles upstream from Cambridge. Like many other land ventures at that time the enterprise was not a financial success, and after investing their savings and seeing little prospect of being able to carry on, the two young Englishmen put the property, on the market for wale. After some anxious I moments, the brothers had the satisfacItion of seeing the estate sold, the Wailn Gold Mining Company being the purchasers. The company had the property I subdivided, and disposed of the sections on comparatively easy terms, the transactions yielding a handsome proht. The company, in its wisdom, decided to retain the freehold title to that portion of the block that abuts on to the rapids that have since been harnessed to develop the electric power that has been reticulated throughout the whole of the southern part of the Auckland Province. The object of this retention was so that the company could later develop power to work the goldmines in the vicinity of Waihi. When the time came to make a move with this work the company made application to the Government for an casement for the transmission line and for the necessary license or formal permission, but the' Government of the day declined the application, and laid down the law that the natural resources of the country belonged to the community, i.e., the State. Thus no company or individual could use them. The Waihi Company invited the then Government to develop "the wonderful resources at Horahora, or, in the alternative, to permit the company to do so, with the condition that the company must, at any time when, called upon, stand down. But it was not until about lo or 16 years ago that the company was granted the needed permission. With enterprise and enthusiasm, the company entered into the undertaking, Mr. 'H. Roche, now of Cambridge, and Mr. Gauvain, until recently senior engineer to the Thames Valley Power Board, were appointed to take charge of the gigantic scheme. In a year or two the rapids had been harnessed, and a transmission line between the site and the goldmines at Waikino and Waihi was erected. The Government, in its license to the Waihi Company, had a clause enabling it to resume the plant and reticulation at a valuation, and about five years ago this clause was put into operation, with the result that the Government took over complete charge of the undertaking, supplying the company with a stated amount of power at a fixed sum, and having an abundance of power available for supply to the communities throughout the Waikato and Thames Valley. Most people are familiar with the development and scope of the enterprise nowadays, for power is supplied from Kio Kio" in the south-west, to Thames and Waitakaruru in the north-east, operating hundreds of milking machines, scores of industrial plants, and also providing light and heat in probably thousands of homes in towns, hamlets and on farms far removed from centres.