POWER FOR THE COUNTRY
The principal feature of to-day's issue of "The Post," which is" a special number published for the Manawatu Spring Show, is a series of articles dealing with the Mangahao hydro-electric power scheme. The production of 24,000 horsepower to serve a large population and a huge area of country, from a little river so buried among the hills that most of its future beneficiaries will never see it, is an enchanting topic, which will be found set out pleasantly as well as informatively. Electricity, though known to the ancients in some of its forms, is extraordinarily young in the service of man. In half a century it has sprung "from experimental beginnings to the position of the master-force. To-day it dominates almost every walk of life. Already in charge of factory and workshop, it is rapidly becoming the servant in the home and an efficient labourer on the farm.
It is an important part of the New Zealand Government's electrical policy to encourage the use of the power on farms, not only for. lighting and other domestic uses, but especially for driving the machinery without which no modern dairy farm is complete. Where farms have been electrified the results appear to have.been all that can be desired; and there is no doubt that this flexible, cleanly, and economical form of power has provided an escape from the drudgery which in other conditions makes dairy-farming an occupation full of drudgery. The farmer is of course wedded to his big tame horses; but there is no question that when the "wild horse from the hills" is subdued by engineers and led to his gate, his circumstances are magically changed; and those of his wife and family no less improved. The reform of farming by electricity will of course be gradual. Its progress depends upon economic factors, including the cost of the power and of the installation of plant; but the economic aspect is one in which the prospective user will have ample guidance by advice and exarr. g \
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 105, 31 October 1923, Page 6
Word Count
339POWER FOR THE COUNTRY Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 105, 31 October 1923, Page 6
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