The Press MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1950. Planning for Power

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26018, 23 January 1950, Page 6

The Press MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1950. Planning for Power

In his report on the Roxburgh Gorge and other hydro-electric power schemes, Dr. J. L. Savage, the eminent American civil engineer, has warned the Government and the country that the departments concerned are inadequately staffed to deal with these huge projects. Temperately and cautiously worded as the warning is, it leaves no doubt about Dr. Savage’s opinion that the big hydroelectric schemes now under construction or due to be started soon will be delayed unless additional designing staff can be obtained. The same warning has been given on many occasions in the last two or three years by New Zealand engineers within and outside the Public Service. Although its Minister of Works also showed his concern at the shortage of engineers and other skilled staff for hydroelectric works, the last Government was unable or unwilling to act as vigorously as the circumstances required. Not only did the Commissioner of Works call in vain for a salary scale which w'ould attract and hold engineers and qualified technical staff, but the Government dissipated much of its limited engineering resources on big engineering works which, however desirable they may be, certainly will not be essential for many years. Dr. Savage was commissioned by the last Government mainly to give an independent opinion on the soundness or otherwise of the engineering in the country’s big hydroelectric works. New Zealanders take pride in the important engineering works that have been carried out in this country in its comparatively short history; and most are conscious that some of the mos£ notable works of the last few years have had to contend with very great difficulties. Although Dr. Savage differs from the New Zealand engineers in a few matters of detail —and suggests, in a curiously diffident way, some modifications of their plans—he has found their work sound and comparable with that of the engineers on some of the most important American projects. Dr. Savage’s high praise for the engineers of the Government departments concerned in the hydro works is reassuring and very satisfying. But Dr. Savage, who saw that “ New Zealand will need many “ more such projects, and need “ them as fast as they can be con- “ structed ”, was clearly convinced that the present organisation for prosecuting the hydro-electric programmes needs to be strengthened and overhauled. Like Mr Semple, he thinks will be necessary to call on overseas contractors, possibly by letting contracts to combinations of local and overseas construction firms. But the last Government, after toying with the idea for a year or more, vacated office without giving the public any real assurance that overseas contractors could be induced to bring th'eir large-scale plant and—just as important—their skilled workers, to New Zealand. But however the construction problem is overcome, the essential preliminaries of investigating, planning, and designing must be carried out by the country’s own engineering resources. Dr. Savage was perturbed at the inadequacy of the designing staff because of its effect upon the works upon which he was reporting—works in progress and works in immediate prospect. There is very good reason to believe that the department’s preparations for future schemes are suffering through the need to concentrate all, or nearly all, its engineering resources upon immediate works. More than a year ago, Mr I. R. Robinson, chairman of the North Island group committee of the Electric Supply Authority Engineers’ Institute, and a former official of the State Hydro-electric Department, pointed to the same defects which have perturbed Dr. Savage: The present organisation of the Government for building •hydro-electric stations is grossly inadequate, and defects in the organisation go right through the whole of the State Hydroelectric Department and the Ministry of Works. . . . Unless the Government is prepared to make staff available there will be no complete relief from the shortage of power within the next decade. The staff required are professional engineers for the investigation, design, and construction of very big works. There must be adequate technical staff, such as draftsmen and erection engineers. There must also be sufficient skilled tradesmen to carry out all the multitudinous trades work associated with this class of development. In addition there must also be adequate clerical staff to handle all the inevitable general office work in connexion with the jobs.

Partly because of the war, partly because of the- last Government’s lack of foresight, the country has lived and will continue to live for some years yet a hand-to-mouth existence in the electrical sense. The demand for power has been restricted, artificially, to the limits of supply; the output of each new station has been mortgaged in advance. Even the completion of the huge 350,000 kilowatt Roxburgh Gorge station Will give the South Island only a few years of abundance. Long before the Roxburgh station is working, plans for another station or stations just as big must be complete to the last detail. Indeed, work should by then have begun on the construction of Roxburgh’s successor. No more important task faces the new Government than to ensure that hydro-electric development is planned sufficiently far ahead.