MATRICULATION GEOGRAPHY PAPER

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 148, 19 December 1935, Page 26

MATRICULATION GEOGRAPHY PAPER

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—With your permission I would like to present another angle to the controversy recently published in your paper concerning Question 4 of the geography paper, for the university entrance examination. >!!:—.. .-' T;.-.':.' ':. .....

..'The determination of a power supply', policy,is, -of course, : generally infl'uericed by the 'geographical.nature of the country! concerned, but the relationship, (is perhaps : too ; vague., for the average youthf to ■ appreciate.- ~. To a student particularly ■■ interestedi in electricity,: it may be apparent,'as he would doubtless ■ have occasion to" study the subject, but the question in the mind of ~the writer is not a fair one to expect in a geography. paper of this standard^. ■": i . : '-•' J- '■■!'■=

' The dissimilarity in the methb'ds of electrical generation in England and in New Zealand is not by any means entirely due to geographical variance, as our learned examiner would indicate by his reply to_ Dr._G. H. Utterley. Some '20 or 30 years jfgo the generallyaccepted practice for the generation of power, was by means of steam, and haidiTew. Zealand" befen. populated! and developed;' Sufficiently at that time to haveiwarrahted the installation of large generating '< plants, there is no doubt that we would still utilising steam engines as prime movers. It is also highly, probable that today we would be sp ifaricommitted in this, direction k&tp jpreclude usjfor a considerable tih^e at least, from taking advantage of th.c lalrge^amount of hydraulic energy that is available. Like England, we too havejvery large coal resources so geographically placed, as to permitl us to comfortably reticulate the whole of New .'Zealand with electrical energy. .The decision made by the Government as to ; the method of electrical genera.tion 'in New Zealand is' still an- open question and" probably/not many people are aware : that one -of the, decidingß factors to resort '■ to ■hydroelectric schemes was brought about by :the" labour difficulties that were-experienced in New Zealand during the,early part of this century.: Even today, large steam generating plants are being installed, as evidenced'by the decision made by the Wellington City Council to install at Evans Bay a steam generating plant, while on the other hand the Paimerston North City Council has. recently elected to install some Dieseldriven5 generators. :. With; reference to the professor's remarks ". concerning "elaborating in a wonderful manner a network of •interrelated. po|wer lines which we in New Zealand have been copying in our own ' way," it is^apparent that he has not acquainted himself with the true posi,iton .as- given in detail sometime ago ih!your valuable paper. Until quite recently England has been supplied by a Jarge number of independent steam and Diesel generating stations, and-it | was only when the "grid" sy&tem was inaugurated by Act in 1926 that they commenced "to follow the lead set! by New Zealand in tying up the stations to feed into a common network. This work was commenced in 1928.and not completed until 1935. The large quantity of equipment used in the original development of New Zealand's hydro-electric schemes was entirely due to the fact that in those, early days England had no! demand for this class I of; plant in her 'own; country. and; was notiri a position to quote competitively | or-from experience. •■■■.' :

• Actually,-i 'the English • manufactureir of electrical equipment is indebted to New Zealand for her enterprise in installing extra high-tension, equipment, as^the;preference given by New Zealand to' English manufacturers has permitted them to enter the market' and Igain an experience which is reflected 'in-jtheir present high standard of manujfaeture: : :

•-Engineering history and politics, therefore, have combined in forming the electrical generation policy for New Zealahd, and not. so much, geographical features as? Professor Bartram would indicate. —I am,-etc., .

ENGINEER-TEACHER.