MORE ENERGY REQUIRED.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XXIV, Issue 4123, 15 November 1919, Page 2

MORE ENERGY REQUIRED.

" I The executive of the Canterbury Progress League and the energetic, wide--1 awake organiser, Mr Climie, deserve I the best thanks of the people of this and o vther districts for the efforts they are making to get the Government to r press forward as quickly aa possible with the extension of the Lake Coler- . idge hydro-electric scheme. It ig no : exaggeration to say that the people of j Ellesmere and Springs counties are heartily sick of the manner in which the !• Public Works Department is handling f m this very important scheme. If the Department '& inaction is allowed to go on it will be years before prosperous, thickly-settled districts which should have had electricity long ago, are linked up. It seems to be quite impossible * to get anything definite from the Government. The fact that the North Island carries more guns than the South is becoming all too apparent, and it is absolutely essential that the Canterbury members of Parliament should be " given to understand that they must do more in the future to further the in--7 taretts of this province than has been j k done ky members in recent years. TRe ; latest attitude of the Public Works Department with respect to the electrical extension to Springs and Elleemere is un- , reasonable and unfair, and. we heartily endorse the resolution passed by the Progress League executive oh Wednesday. We are by no means satisfied, moreover, that the Department is doing Anything at all to hurry on the delivery ' of the iron required from England for the additional pipe line at Lake Coleridge. The order for this iron was plac : ed well over five years ago and the material was practically ready for shipment when the war broke out. Unfortunately for Canterbury, the sheet iron was commandeered for war purposes. It was quite reasonable to expect that the firm which had the order would have • made the contract one of its first after j the war, but it seems that some time i "was lost in barneying over the price I before the work was put in hand. A notification from the Government that the material was urgently needed, es- | pecially if backed up by the Prime Minister .and Sir Joseph Ward .luring [ one of their visits Home would certain- ( ly have hurried on the contract, which, I after all, is a comparatively small one j for any of the large British firms to handle. It looks as through the Government is prepared to await the pleasure of the Hojne firm in regard to the delivery of the pipe line material. It has teen given out that the new line which will operate the turbine driving the 4,000 kilowatt generator will not be working until after next winter, atd that with a measure of luck Ellesmere I and Springs may get electricity by the winter ot 1921. If the Public Works Department had the inclination and energy to do so it could easily have the new plant at the lake running in less than a year. A vigorous public works policy is badly needed in this country. We hope Sir William Fraser'a successor will be a live, progressive ma-i, determined to keep pa»e with the times.