When Reefton flashed into world-wide prominence

Press, 26 December 1984, Page 15

When Reefton flashed into world-wide prominence

With this contribution, JOHN ROSANOWSKI, a Christchurch schoolteacher, took fourth place and $lOO in the feature article competition jointly held by the South Island Writers’ Association and “The Press.”

The West Coast town of Reefton stands quietly between the hills at the foot of the Inangahua Valley. It covers no more than a square mile and contains only about 1200 people. Reefton, nevertheless, occupies a unique place in New Zealand’s history. It was there that, on December 6, 1886, a group of investors decided to form a company to produce and sell electric power. This was to be the first public supply of electricity in New Zealand and among the earliest public supplies in the world. How did it happen that this small town came to rank with New York, London, and Vienna in such a major technological milestone? The answer is to be found in the circumstances surrounding Reefton’s establishment. The town was cut from the bush beside the Inangahua River to provide a service centre for the rich Murray Creek quartz reefs discovered by Richard Shiel in June, 1870. Because quartz was costly to mine and crush, companies had to be formed. Reefton quickly became a town containing

capitalists and attracting capital. Naturally it also attracted men, machines, and methods capable of improving the extraction of gold from stone.

Reefton, then, was far from being simply a backwater settlement tenuously linked with the rest of New Zealand by rough tracks, dangerous river crossings, and cruel bar harbours. It was also a metropolis standing on the high roads of engineering knowledge and equipment. Therefore, it was not surprising that new technology, such as the pelton wheel, and new forms of energy, such as electricity, found their way to Reefton ahead of more populous or longer established towns and cities.

The commercial production of electricity, however, became possible only after 1878. Thomas Edison’s production of an efficient dynamo in that year, and his 1882 opening of a small electric power station in New York, was followed soon after by similar schemes in Britain and on the Continent Not all of them were successful. The production and transmission of electricity at that time was very

experimental. Consequently, many of the electrical companies —' especially those depending on trial-and-error methods — failed disastrously. Doubts were widely expressed that the new source of power would come to anything. A further hindrance to the spread of electricity was the existence of reticulated supplies of gas which, although dearer than electricity, had the advantage of being both proven and already installed. Within New Zealand some electrical installations had been made during the early 1880 s. For example, in 1883 the Kaiapoi Woollen Mill, the Lyttelton Wharf, and the House of Representatives in Wellington were lit by electrical means. But all of these installations were small scale, private concerns. Reefton in 1886 was receptive ground for a speculative company to provide a supply of electricity for the use of the public. Speculation was a feature of the town’s business life. Most residents showed a strong interest in buying and selling mining company shares. Out of a populace of only 1102, no fewer than 22 residents listed “sharebroker” or “speculator” as

their main occupation in the “Wise’s N.Z. Directory” published in 1887. The town even boasted a stock exchange. And such was the interest that, during boom times, deals in shares could actually be made on a Saturday night in Broadway, the town’s main street. It was into this community that electrical engineer extraordinary, Walter Prince, rode on November 20, 1886, with a proposition that he hoped would “light up the town.” Prince had been working for the Dunedin electrical firm, R. E. Fletcher and Co. Although trained in England, he had revealed shortcomings of practical knowledge in the two main intallations with which he had been associated

— an early, unsuccessful Lyttelton wharf lighting and the Phoenix mine’s troubled electrical quartzcrushing battery. In each case he was unable to provide a satisfactory service and further work had to be undertaken by other engineers. Prince was, nevertheless, a great enthusiast for all things electrical and proved to have few peers in promotion, showmanship, and self-advertisement.

On the day of Prince’s arrival in Reefton, the “Lyttelton Times” ran an article on the Phoenix electrical scheme containing highly complimentary statements as to his part in it. Internal evidence points to the supplier of the information as being none other than Prince himself.

On November 24, this enthusiastic electrical salesman set out to, enthuse the townspeople of Reefton. Linking his 1 kilowatt dynamo to the Oxley’s Brewery steam engine in the Strand, he ran telegraph wires to the business section of the town and lit the bars of Dawson’s, Kater’s, Stevenson’s, and Williams’ hotels.

The locals were most impressed and the “Inangahua Herald” reports that the bars remained open “to a very late hour.” Prince followed up this demonstration the next evening by giving a lengthy lecture at the Oddfellows’ Hall. He traced the history of electricity “from the days of Thales of Miletus,” interspersing it with electrical experiments and exhibitions of various working models of electrical appliances.

Walter Prince and the capitalists of Reefton became an inspired pairing — a persuasive promoter with a high-risk scheme and selfmade capitalists accustomed and willing to gamble on speculative ventures. The outcome seems to have been inevitable. On December 6, 1886, a meeting at Dawson’s Hotel re-

solved to form a company to provide a public supply of electricity. The scheme was to be run by hydro-electric power. A small part of the Inangahua River would be diverted into a I.Bkm water-race. There would be a fall of 8.3 metres to the “power house” where a generator capable of lighting 500 lamps of 20 candle power would be driven by a water turbine. There would probably be spare power, the ever-optimistic engineer assured the company, and this could be sold to the mines and added to the profits. The company’s records show 65 original shareholders. All were "locals,” and the town’s general preoccupation with investment is illustrated by the wide variety of occupations listed — from hairdresser to clerk, from tinsmith to tailor.

Seven directors were appointed: Charles Cohen, stationer; William Hindmarsh, sharebroker, Walter Irving, mining speculator, George Joice, watchmaker, George Wise, mining agent; and two newspaper Sroprietors, Charles Mirfin and W. . Potts.

Grandly, the company was to be called The Reefton Electrical Transmission of Power and Lighting Company, Ltd, and the irrepressible Walter Prince immediately spent £l7 of the shareholders’ money cabling to Britain for the required plant. He also ordered equipment for a completely untried electrical rockboring scheme which he had sold to the United Alpine Mining Company- „

Although it was to be another 20 months before the plant was installed, Reefton had taken its historic decision. As the West Coast correspondent wrote in the “Weekly Press” of December 24, 1886:

“Reefton ... is making a proud name for herself ... She above all cities in the Southern hemisphere has started in the lead of utilising the electric light for the benefit of her inhabitants ... Magnificant Melbourne, stately Sydney, august Adelaide, with ambitious Auckland, windy Wellington, critical Christchurch, and discursive Dunedin — all are left far behind in the march of progress, for Reefton has the electric light.”