WHY DELAYED CRITICISM?

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 257, 30 October 1928, Page 8

WHY DELAYED CRITICISM?

POWER BOARD ASKS QUESTION. NO QUALMS ABOUT DAM SITE. "Who is Mr. Holmes—the scaremonger over Arapuni?" This was the prelude to an interesting discussion at yesterday's meeting of the Auckland Power Board, relative to the reliability of the Arapuni dam. "He £ a late engineer of the Public Works Department," said the chairman (Mr. W. J. Holdsworth).

"He has been retired on superannuation, and feels now that he is able to criticise some of his own work," supplemented a member.

Mr. Holdsworth said Mr. Holmes would have strengthened his case considerably if he had previously pointed out that it was not a safe proposition to develop the work, but he had waited for four or five years to draw attention to defects in the scheme. He was now on superannuation and the scheme was near completion. He did not deny what Mr. Holmes had to say, but it did not seem to [carry much weight in the circumstances.

Mr. J. Rowe explained that Mr. Holmes was looked upon as practically the only engineer in the Dominion at one time. He was then regarded as a very great man.

Mr. J. Park understood that from the outset Mr. Holmes emphatically refused to have anything to do with the Arapuni scheme.

Mr. Holdsworth: We must not over-j look the fact that there was a committee of four or five competent engineers that examined the whole of the country about Arapuni. They made a most thorough investigation and a comprehensive report, and were unanimous in stating that Arapuni was the site for the development of hydro-electric development. We know there were people whom the scheme did not suit and threw doubt on the whole position, and also that they struck some soft patches at the power station site, but I did not know anything about difficulty at the dam itself.

Mr. Park /Baid that the foundations at the dam were found to be correct by the Armstrong, Whitworth engineers. While investigations were not carried out at the powerhouse site, they admitted that careful investigations were made near the dam. Prominent engineers who had visited Arapuni were not happy about the powerhouse site, but they had never previously heard anything about the dam site.

Mr. R. H. Bartley (general manager) considered that Mr. Holmes' statement was based on supposition. He talked about earthquakes, a thing that could not be guarded against. Further than that he (Mr. Bartley) had had a discussion with one of the chief engineers to the Armstrong-Whitworth Company, and he

(the engineer) gave the impression that he had no qualms about the dam and the dam standing. He had visited Arapuni himself recently, and he did not see anything to occasion alarm. At this stage the discussion was allowed to lapse.