NO CLUE FOUND YET

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 139, 16 June 1930, Page 10

NO CLUE FOUND YET

EXPLORATORY TUNNEL

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, 15th June. Mi', F. W- Furkert, Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, states that the recent earth movement at Arapuni has so far defied explanation. Investigations havo proceeded during the n-holo of the past week, butt nothing of a nature likely to assist the officers of the Department to find the cause of thcmovciiicnt has been discovered. The tunnel which is being driven beneath the crack on the lower side of, the spillway had on Saturday been driven for a distance of 50ft, and had passed beneath the first fissure, and was on the way to the second crack, which- is about 25ft further in. Unfortunately, the operations so far have produced, little information of any value. It has shown that the first crack is quite vertical and does not, as was at first hoped, indicate which way the tilt of the earth has been. It was "with a view to ascertaining the angle of the movement, so as to know where to attack the pressure, that the tunnelling was undertaken. '■ The tunnelling operations are not, as has been suggested, of a dangerous nature. There is little, if any, danger attached to them. No movement has been recorded sineo the main crack was discovered. . If anything the fissures have shown.a tendency to close. Investigations are proceeding the whole time,, and it is possible that Dr. J. Henderson, Chief Government Geologist, who was at:"Arapuni earlier in the week, will return. Mr. Furkert is still at Arapuni, but anticipates returning to Wellington soon. After that he will return as necessity arises. A larger hopper has boon erected alongside the falls in preparation_ for the concreting work which was decided upon some time ago. This work will be hurried on. A large gang of men is engaged in excavating a tramway road at the low level between the spillway and the falls. The water in the big lake has been reduced 18ft and is going down at the rate of 2-lin per hour. The gates have been opened to a height of over 7ft, and will be progressively lifted as the water in the lake falls. The rush of water down the bed of the old stream between the dam and powerhouse is now lapping over the platform which forms the power-house base. This flow has put a stop to the execavation work that was taking place at the base of the new penstock tunnels, where a large gang of men was engaged. As a result married men on the job havo been transferred to the other undertaking. Between sixty and a hundred single men have been put off.