THE BOROUGH ENGINEER.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LIV, Issue 9025, 3 November 1925, Page 5

THE BOROUGH ENGINEER.

I To the Editor. | Sir,—it is a matter ot‘ extreme j regret that relations between the I Borough Goimeil and the electrical engineer have become so strained { that the latter, fur his own peace of mind and lor the dignity of his profession, has fen Ural he had no other course left open to him than to tender his resignation, after a period of ten years of useful and faithful service. That this service has now been crowned wit It the brilliantly successful hi cLa run's Falls hvdro-elecUic scheme makes the fact of the engineer's resignation all the more lamentable, What are the crimes committed by the engineer that the council, led by the Mayor, should heckle and browbeat him into taking this drastic step? Why was the Council in such indecent haste to accept the engineer’s resignation ? Which of the two —the Mayor and Councillors, or the Engineer—can Tauranga most advantageously do without? These are questions that are exercising the mind of the man in the street, and no one can deny that the services of Mr Mandeno are an enormous asset to this borough, and the Council should carefully and impartially weigh tlie matter at-length, and not part lightly from such ah excellent and gifted servant, 1 use the word, advisedly, because he has truly served. Let me briefly ‘ review. As recently as seven-and-a-half years ago we were so proud of our Oman aw a Falls scheme, that we took the delegates to the Fire Brigades’ Conference out to view the 300 horsepower installation which was then operating there. Shortly after, under Mr Mandeno’s regime, Omanawa was further harnessed to its full output : about 1000 horse power. The demand for more current made it imperative that another source should be tapped, tlie McLaren’s Falls scheme being the result, of which Mr Mandeno may—and every citzen of Tauranga should — be justly proud. For this scheme is no weakling, but a proper child; conceived in the fertile brain of the Engineer: nurtured and fostered with increasing care for some two or more years, alrd now brought to a generous fruition, j being capable of delivering well over 4000 horse power. The magnitude of the works cannot be ful* ly realised even by visiting the, scone, because much, of the work is covered up, owing to the filling of the sixty foot" dam, but- _ there is still to be seen ample evidence of the Engineer’s genius; not the least of which is the handsome and spacious power-house erected from his own designs. The scheme at McLaren’s Falls is a, clever one, inasmuch as the halndiwork of Nature has been taken advantage of to the fullest extent in order to reap the greatest benefit therefrom, incidentally saving some thousands of pounds in constructional work. It is, moreover, a profitable scheme, as there is such an insistent and steadily growing demand for current, the Government being about to become one of our biggest consumers. In fact, I believe they are now assessable to the tune of ten pounds per day, although we are not supplying a single volt to them. Someone may ask, ‘‘Was not the Engineer paid for doing this work V* Well, Sir, he may have been half-paid, but when one reads an advertisement for an assistant engineer to an Australian gasworks at sixteen hundred a year, one wonders if Mr Mandeno were not quarter-paid. To sum up, it would appear that the shortcomings of the Engineer, compared to the inestimable service he has rendered to this community, are as a drop in the ocean. Let the Mayor and Councillors cut out the despotism. Let them commune with their inner selves and say "These are not my streets, but the streets of the people.’' ‘‘These are not my endowments, but the endowments of the people.” "These are not my employees, but those of the people, and at my request I have been made an honorary caretaker of these things for the people.” e ‘Noblesse oblige.” F. W. MEIKLE. Tauranga, Ist. Nov., 1925.