DAM AT LAKE TEKAPO

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22430, 17 June 1938, Page 15

DAM AT LAKE TEKAPO

EFFECT OF HIGHER LEVEL FLOODING OF NEARBY J PROPERTIES NEW ROAD WILL BE NECESSARY £From Our Own Reporter.] KUROW, June 16. When the dam. to raise Lake Tekapo 14 feet is built the ground floor of Tekapo House will be awash, and the house will be abandoned. The celebrated semj-suspension bridge, built in 1880. will be isolated in deep water, and a new road will be carried round the hillside by a detour and over the new dam. Existing homes on town sections and the church, the foundation stone of which was laid by the Duke of Gloucester, will not be flooded until, at some future time, the lake level is raised to 30 feet. Homesteads, roads, and property on the Fairlie side of the lake will also be affected by the proposed dam.

The Lands Department is ready to provide an alternative site for the new Tekapo House, which will of necessity have to be built. The site is adjoining the main road, half a mile nearer Fairlie. It will be built above all future possible lake raisings. The hotel was originally built about 60 years ago. when there was no bridge, and all stock and goods were ferried across the river. In 1917 the Mount Cook Tourist Company purchased it from the Mackenzie County Council. The proposal at that time was to float a subsidiary company to develop Tekapo into a first-class tourist resort. That project fell through, and Mr T. D. Burnett purchased the. hotel with 4000 acres of grazing country, and in 1919 he abandoned the licence. Tekapo bridge, admired by thousands of tourists, will stand almost submerged. It is of unusual design. It was built by the Mount Cook 'Board, and for many years tolls for its use were collected by the licensee of the Tekapo Hotel. Submersion of Homestead That landmark in the district, the homestead of Tekapo Station, owned by Miss Lucy Wills, will be covered with ; water. The homestead was built by Mr John Hay. a nephew of Mr Ebenezer Hay, in 1857, when the station was one of the first selections made in the Mackenzie Country. It was originally of 27,000 acres; but has since been subdivided. Several feet of water will enter the homestead, round which from time to time has been built a modern home in sections. The homestead paddocks of Mount Hay Station, of 17,000 acres, owned bv Mr John Scott, and part of the original Tekapo Station, will be flooded, and almost one mile -of road leading along the present high beach level to Richmond Station, beyond Mount Hay. will be under water. Richmond was first taken up by the Purnells i»JLBSB;Jand is .now owned by“^r'Jam^l^ihgle. It is possible that by the building of a costly embankment the skating rink conducted by Mr Douglas Rodmas as an adjunct to Tekapo House might be saved. On this side of the lake, the frontages of Glenmore and Godley Stations will be interfered with by the raising of the level, and the homestead, used in the summer months by the Murray family, now residing in North Canterbury, will also be affected ' Possibilities of Pnkaki As a layman. Mr T, D. Burnett. M.P„ has always advanced the view that the Public Works Department should have concentrated on Lake Pukaki for storage for the Waitaki hydro-electric development. If Lake Pukaki were raised 100 feet, its length would be increased by six or seven miles, said Mr Burnett, when interviewed by “The Press” this week, "Pukaki is filling up rapidly by the deposits of enormous quantities of glacial material. coming down from the main Tasman glacier and subsidiaries. The raising of the level by JOO feet would Increase the life of the lake by at least 200 years." He considered that the filling up process was almost quiescent in Lakes Tekapo and Ohau, but since the days when the earliest runholders entered the Tasman Valley, -Pukaki has lost three-quarters of a mile of its area. _ Lake Pukaki lies 735 feet below Tekapo. on the south, and one of the earliest power proposals was to build a dam 70 feet high for 70.000 horsepower development. It has always been realised that a dam constructed at Pukaki would be costly, as the dam would be In a moraine. Lake Pukaki, which has an area of 31 square miles, and drains about 30 miles of the Alps, has a flow approximating that from Lake Tekapo. Ohau. the third lake which will: be dammed ultimately. also has a heavy discharge of water. It is 1720 feet above sea- level, has an area of 24 square mtfes. and drains the Alos for a length of 21 miles. The likely future site of the dam at Ohau-is in a rock gorge near where the road bridge is built. Although test shafting has been carried .out at Tekapo. no similar investigations have been made at either Pukaki or Ohau; but full data of their discharges over a long period have been collected.