WATER POWER FOR ELECTRICITY.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13596, 3 December 1909, Page 6

WATER POWER FOR ELECTRICITY.

The agreement that has just been reached between the Waihi Goldmining Company and the Government respecting the company'- hydro-electric power scheme, represents tho final stage in negotiations which from first to last hare spread over several years. If the company's proposals had been accepted by the late Premier, tho "Waihi proprietary would have had tho benefit of cheep electric power years ago, and the country would have had the advantage of a great object lesson which must have encouraged the establishment of similar undertakings in other parts of the country. The company were then prepared to pay a roj-alty to th© Government for the power used, and to hand over tho installation to the Government whenever desired, on condition that they were supplied with power at a reasonable rate. They offered, indeed, much the same terms that the Government has now accepted. But at that time Mr Seddon had somo odd idea that it was the duty of the Government to look up all tho untapped water power of the Dominion, and prevent anyone making use of it. We were told in effect that the right to tho power must be conserved!, for the people, and were led; to understand, in rather vague terms, it is true, that the Government meant not only to control but also to administer the water power rights. .Of course it never did anything ; it had no money for the purpose' in the first place. To utilise the water power of New Zealand on the scale apparently contemplated by the late Premier would have meant the expenditure of millions. As a result, all that happened was that the Government acted like the dog in the manger, unable to profit by what it guarded' but jealously preventing anyone else from doing any good with it. The present Government has acted more wisely, and both parties to the agreement may, we think, be congratulated on its. fair and reasonable, terms. The Waihi Company secures, at a price that it is willing to pay, the power it needs; the public rights in tho water power are safeguarded, while at the same time the rest of the Dominion will be afforded a lesson, at private expense and risk, in the utilisation of water power which may be the beginning of the great hydro-electric industry for which New Zealand offers such a fine field.