ELECTRIC POWER FOR INDUSTRY

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25936, 17 October 1949, Page 6

ELECTRIC POWER FOR INDUSTRY

DEVELOPMENT NOTED OVERSEAS AMERICAN EXPERT’S IMPRESSIONS From Cur Own Reporter WELLINGTON, October 16. Hydro-electricity as a source of power for industry was becoming increasingly important with the decline in the supply of fuels such as coal, said Dr. L. J. Savage, the American engineer who has been advising the Government on the Roxburgh and other power schemes. He himself had seen a great development in countries which he had recently visited as a consultant, such as China. Turkey, Israel. Mexico, and the West Indies, Dr.‘Savage said. Others, like India. Pakistan, and Afghanistan, whose greatest need was for irrigation, were combining this with power schemes wherever the natural conditions would allow. That combination was common in other countries.

In the United States, the supply of electricity was regarded as incidental to an irrigation project or to river control, and the Grand Coulee and Boulder Dam, with the design of both of which he was associated, had a double function, Dr. Savage said. The Tennessee Valley Authority, though primarily providing electricity, supplied water for irrigation as well. New Zealand, he said, had made a good start with irrigation projects and important as they were already, their great value in increasing the productivity of the county would be even more apparent in the years to come. Asked whether it was more economic to found industries near the source of power or to transport power long distances to where an industry was established, Dr. Savage said that power could be and was transported for many miles. For instance industry 1? Angeles drew its supply from the Boulder Dam. 300 miles away, but it had to be remembered that Los Angeles had been an industrial town before Boulder Dam had been thought < , was a matter of weighing the established industry against the loss in transmission and he thought that the best solution was to have the industry as near the source of power as possible.

Dr. Savage will remain in New Zealand for about a month. After a few ?^ ys j \ n he will visit the Waikato river schemes, and if necessary return to the South Island for a turther examination of the Roxburgh