Heavy Rain In Mountains

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30541, 9 September 1964, Page 1

Heavy Rain In Mountains

Heavy rain which fell in the catchments of Lake Pukaki and Lake Tekapo yesterday could help the crisis of power storage in South Island lakes, says a Press Association report from Timaru. Almost an inch fell at Lilybank station, at the head of Lake Tekapo, in the 14 hours to 8.30 p.m. yesterday, and at the Hermitage it was estimated that between 2in and 3in fell during the day.

Mrs I. A. Maxwell, wife of the manager of Lilybank station, said at 8.30 p.m. that in addition to the day’s rain the snow was thawing, the creeks were high, and the Godley and Macaulay rivers, which feed Lake Tekapo, were above normal.

“The snow is quite a way back now,” Mrs Maxwell said. The manager of the Hermitage (Mr L. S. Dennis) said that no reading had been taken since 9 a.m., but he estimated that up to 3in of rain had fallen throughout the day. "Unfortunately, it was a cold rain and did not melt the snow to any extent," he said, Rain fell at Lake Pukaki during the morning. Late yesterday the level of Lake Tekapo was about 14.2 ft. The normal retention level is 35ft. “Those Are The Two . . .’’ In Christchurch yesterday the New Zealand Electricity Department’s district electrical engineer (Mr R. S. S. Meredith) said there had not been much rain other than in the Hermitage and Lilybank stations areas, “but those are the two we are interested in.” Mr Meredith said South Island storage yesterday was down another 1,630,000 kilowatt hours to a total of 75,900,000 units. This was a comparatively modest loss ■after the 2,470,000 units lost the previous day, and it was probably affected by both the better weather and savings. Lake Coleridge was still

dropping and the load had to be reduced because of the danger of drawing air into the pipelines. The weather yesterday was north-westerly, with heavy rain in catchment areas, according to the Meteorological Service’s senior observer in Christchurch (Mr A. K, Brown). A south-west change was expected after midnight, bringing rain to Christchurch, but there were indications that a return to the northwest conditions could occur later in the week. Rain began at Arthur's Pass at 10 p.m. on Monday, and it was still raining heavily there at 4 p.m. yesterday. Although 2.69 in fell at the pass in that period, there was no change in the river level at the Waimakiriri gorge bridge. Christchurch Saving Christchurch consumers on Monday made the 10 per cent saving in power consumption called for by the New Zealand Electricity Department But Mr W. G. Johnstone, the Municipal Electricity Department’s chief engineer, said it would still have to apply the 24-hour water-heating cut from 9 p.m. yesterday because the saving had not been made last week. - However, he considered yesterday’s saving to be “spot on.” It showed a very helpful effort by all consumers, he said.

Anticipating the M.E.D.’s water-heating cut, the Electricity Department yesterday cut Lake Hawea’s discharge from 7000 cusecs to 2000 cusecs to save storage. Lake Hawea supplies the Roxburgh station.