COBB RIVER SCHEME

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 124, 21 November 1935, Page 11

COBB RIVER SCHEME

CONSTRUCTION TO COMMENCE COST ABOUT £300,000 (Special .to the "Evening Post.") NELSON, This Day. The Waimea Electric Power Board received advice today that the Hume Pipe Company had authorised the immediate commencement of the Cobb River hydro-electric scheme. Mr. Herbert Everett, chairman of the board, ] received the following telegram from Mr. W. T. Strand, the New Zealand representative .of the company; "For the information of your board I wish to advise that our London company has authorised me to instruct our engineers to immediately proceed with the development' of the Cobb River hydro scheme." A further message from the company's engineers, Messrs. Vickerman and Lancaster, stated that they had been authorised to commence immediately and that a definite start would be made next Tuesday. After the Waimea Power Board had spent several years investigating possible schemes for the supply of thp whole district, and had found none practicable, the Hume Pipe Company made proposals to develop the Cobb River and supply the Nelson and Golden Bay district at similar rates to those charged by Government schemes. The supply to the electric supply authorities alone would not result in a profitable concern, but the company has undertaken the major scheme in view of the development of large industries in Golden Bay which will absorb large quantities of electric energy. In granting, such a licence to a private company the Government made a break away from its previous policy. The scheme, which will entail the expenditure of £300,000. has the Government's approval and in the licence granted the company, and in the Waimea Power Board's agreement with the company, the rights of jthe people of the district are safeguarded in every way. The Nelson City Council's present steam plant will be fully taxed by next year owing to increasing demands for power, and the city has signed an agreement with the Power Board for the supply of bulk power from the Cobb River scheme. At the present time the board controls a small hydro plant at Brightwater for the supply of the Waimea Plain and another small scheme at Brooklyn for service to the Motueka, Riwaka, Tasman, Mapua area. There is also a small scheme in Golden Bay. Power will be bought from the company at Government rates and the local authority is not called on to give any guarantee regarding the amount of power it will take. The agreements and licence provide, for the operation of the scheme in two years' time. The Cobb Valley is situated on the western side of Mount Arthur and runs in a northerly direction towards the Takaka' Valley. A long, broad flat yalley runs into a rocky gorge and it is there that the dam will be erected to impound water which will spread back over four miles of the valley. The dam site is adjacent to a steep fall of about 1700 feet into another valley.