WATER-POWER.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 95, 19 October 1910, Page 7

WATER-POWER.

GOVEUNfUEHT SCHEME. % MR. P. BLACK REPLIES TOTH3B - PREMIER. """"" ! In the course of the interesting -.afrcfflK, 'sion, on the Aid to Water-Power "Work*, Bill in (Parliament last evening, that, Pfcime Minister made reference to Mr,, F. Black's criticism of the Government's, scheme, published in the Evening Post of Friday last. Sir Joseph attacked two,, statements made by Mr. Black— (1) "Thkb. energy transmitted from Kaituna to>. Auckland would cost five or six times as> much as energy produced' in Auckland by steam" ; and (2) "That no one evea knows whether energy can be transmits ted for 150 miles under the climatic con-, ditions of New Zealand." The Prime Minister considered that Mr. Black did not know what he was talking about in making such a statement's the second.,' Ihere were many schemes in operation] where energy was transmitted for distances at least as great as that proposed in the Kaituna scheme and under conditions no better than obtain here. As for Mi-. Black's first point Mi-. Hay had reported that the Kaituna scheme would be capable of supplying power at £5 10» per horse-power per annum, while the pwbable cost of a steam plant would bo' . £E0 per horse-power per annum. NECESSITY FOR CA~UTIOX. In an interview with a Post represeu- : tative to-day, Mr. Black replied to th» Prime Minister's arraignment. He was gratified, he. said, that his criticism had done good. The discussion last night showed that members realised that a great deal more information and a much closer examination in regard to the details of the scheme were necessary. The; number of schemes proposed for immediate consideration had been reduced fronv nine to three. Even Mr. T. E. Taylor' -had become an advocate of caution in the matter of the development of North; Island schemes. In regard to the Prime Minister's criti-. cism, Mr. Black declared that Mr. Hay, in his reports had simply endeavoured to determine the horse-power of which the different falls were capable. He had, never made any investigation of the mar-> ket for such power as might be generated, and his figures for the cost of power delivered were based on the assumption, that the whole power that could be de^ livered in any market would be sold. "On several occasions," said Mr. Blacky "I consulted with Mr. Hay on the details of his reports, and only a few weeks be-s fore his untimely death I spent several hours with him going" thorougjilw into the various aspects of the pro-> blem with which heihad been dealing. V think that this fact has never been ade-> <juately ma<ie clear, and certainly ha» never been realised by the Government, that Mr. Hay never attempted and never even intended to attempt to estimate tha, probable consumption of energy from any] j water-power schemes in any markets that | could be supplied by the Undertakings ha had investigated. In the preface to hia main report he sta*66 that the revenuo has been computed on the assumption that the power paid for is 60 pet cent. o£ the brake nbrse-p6wer at the turbine shafts, £i 2 a year per brake horse-power, being charged for continuous working Anyone will therefore realise that thai cost piw hom-poweSr per annum in any, b&*kA as gi*fcri by !Nir. HAy is Aot estimated oli the. probable revferme, but ia simply ail indication of *4ttt would be the case if all the energy obtainable from a water-pofrer station cbuld ba'sold.'"' THE PROBLEM OF TRANSMISSION; With regard to the Prime -Minister's second tiplftt about ihe pseblwh. of trans-, mission Mor. Black said .■Sia't %c, quota-

"tion from the article in The Post was not complete. What he had said there '" was : ."No one even knows whether energy can be transmitted 150 miles under our climatic conditions, with sufficient freedom from insulator and high voltage troubles, to enable a reasonably continuous supply to be maintained, irrespective of the matter of post." The climatic conditions were chiefly those of a moist, humid atmosphere, aot favourable for high-tension transmission over long dis tanoes. In. any case the veriest layman would understand that a centre such as . Auckland could not afford to depend for its entire power and lighting on an undertaking subject to such contingencies of breakdown «s a high tension- transmissionline over a hundred miles long. ■ In conclusion Mr. Black remarked that the Prime Minister had been singularly unfortunate in a reference to the Vie toria Falls? — Johannesburg hydro-electric scheme. This had been long since aban"doned by its promoters' as impracticable. They were at present erecting a large generating plant in which coal would be the fuel. Reference had been made to •this in the technical press quite recently, i and he was surprised this had been overlooked by the Minister's advisers.