The Press Tuesday, February 5, 1924. Waimakariri Power.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17989, 5 February 1924, Page 8

The Press Tuesday, February 5, 1924. Waimakariri Power.

We publish to-day a very full summary of the report of the Special Committee of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce on tho Waimakariri power scheme. The scope of the Committee's enquiries was too wide to permit of quite definite conclusions and recommendations, but on the chief issues the findings are sufficiently confident. We are reminded, to begin with, that Parliament has already accepted tho principle that Christchurch has the right to develop its own power-supplies from the "Waimakariri river, and that there cannot therefore bo any question now of the claim of tho city to look past Coleridge. It is emphasised also that as an engineering proposition the Otarama scheme has not .been criticised. Tho Public Works Department agrees, not only that tho Hawley report is a sound one, but that Mr Sehreiber's investigations "wero made most con- " ecientiously, and leave nothing to " chance." It is to ba pointed out, also, although the Report is not so emphatic on this point as it might have been, that the Department does not object to Otarama on the ground that it would imperil any national plans of power development. It says that the sndden loss of the Christchurch market would damage the financial prospects, of Coleridge for some years, and holds that this alone is a reason why there should be no supplementary power supply until that danger has passed, but if it "believed that the harnessing of the Waimakariri would cause trouble of a more permanent kind, it would certainly have said so. Tho Committee found itself in the end, therefore, confronted by thTee or four questions only. Does Coleridge offer security? Does it offer security, with sound economy? Is Christchurch morally bound to support Coleridge until a market is assured in other directions?

"In answering the last question the Committee has gone to the extreme limit of fairness. It agrees that it would be "equitable and reasonable "•that the city should go to consider- " able lengths in an endeavour to pro- '' mote a continuance of contractual " arrangements for supplies from Xiake " Coleridge for so long as tho Lake " plant may reasonably be expected to "-meet all demands." But that does not mean that the city is called on to run real risks, or submit to definite losses, in order that the State may have no risks at Coleridge. It has more than once been pointed out in " The Press" that if Otarama is demonstrably safer and cheaper than Coleridge, the claims of Coleridge to Christehurch support aTe bad even on public grounds. And the Committee has no difficulty in showing that if Christehurch remains faithful to Coleridge it will have no guarantee that Colerjdge will never fail. The Department confesses that there will be lean years, particularly 1926, but argues that when Coleridge is exhausted we still have in the city "about a dozen " reserve plants "(steam and gas- " engine) with a total capacity of " about 4000 h.p." The Committee is naturally much, concerned over this confession of tho Department's, as everyone must be, not only because the estimate of 4000 is ovor-optimi3tic, but because tho anticipated power famine is a very discouraging fact to industry. In the face of such plain proof of the danger of "being allowed to drift " into this position again, in the " future," tho Committee offers a distinctly generous compromise in asking that the city should bo given full Parliamentary powers to develop - the Otarama Bcheme, while contracting not to use those powers unless and until the Coleridge supply again threatens to faiL It is not what any one would call a good contract on one side or tho other, 6inco no contract is good which may lead to wrangling in practice; but since the city would be conceding everything but a slow and progressive way out if left again in difficulties, the Department's reception of such a suggestion will be a fairly good indication of ita faith 5n its own promises. On the difficult question of the cost of the supply, tho Committed suggests a flat or average rate of about £6 Is 3d per lew., this being an increase of 23s 3d on the charge for last year, and of 17s 3d on the current year's ratca, the average being necessary as a safeguard against the Department's possible failure to Bupply tho city's requirements from 1933 onwards, or during the years when the rates on the proposed scuje would bo lowest. It must not bo forgotten that the figures taken by the Department from Mr H?i£k£P.Sfe's commonta cua. £lu*,

Hawley report were not a price list, but a conservative statement for the guidance of the Council of the worst, rather than the best, that could be expected. The report will be considered in detail at a special meeting of the Council next Monday, and very earnestly, we hope, by the public in the interval; but we agree with the Mayor in the meantime that the community is deeply indebted to the Chamber of Commerce for a statement so exhaustive and penetrating.