The Evening Star SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 1934. MONOWAI.

Evening Star, Issue 21689, 7 April 1934, Page 12

The Evening Star SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 1934. MONOWAI.

A bkcext statement by Mr Hinchey, chairman of the Southland Power Board, placed the Monowai hydroelectric system in a more favourable light than it has so far appeared in. Broadly speaking, last year a profit of £16,000 was shown (the revenue, of course, including the proceeds of the power rate), and it is hoped that the succeeding year will show an even greater profit. Monowai can develop between half and two-thirds of the present capacity of Waipori, but it is unequal to satisfying the present demand in Southland. It is doubtful if the board’s officers could favourably entertain a ratepayer’s request for the installation of even one additional electric cooker, and the establishment of a new saw-mill to be driven by the board’s current would at present be impossible. This is in a sense gratifying, but the board cannot long rest content with such a position. In the power house so very picturesquely situated on one of the most scenic reaches of the Waiau River (the largest stream but one in Australasia) there are at present three turbo-generators installed. There is at present in the workshop a spare turbine and governor to which the finishing touches (including a change from belt drive to chain drive) have just been given prior to immediate delivery to the Waitaki Power Board at Kurow, where this generating machinery is urgently wanted. Under existing conditions it is not suitable for Monowai, expert engineering opinion being that the clamant need is for a type of generator capable of giving high efficiency with a very heavy overload. The power house has been designed for such further extension; provision was originally made at the penstock for the additional pipe line that would be required, yet there is a hitch due to indecision. It appears that there is a certain amount of pressure on the Southland Power Board to buy current from Waitaki as soon as it becomes available, and if is. understood that .strenuous efforts are being made to hasten that date. There seems to be a feeling that there will be a difficulty in finding a, market for all the power that Waitaki will generate, even though the first installation will consume only a fraction of the water available. We sincerely hope that this estimate of consumption will prove far too conservative, and that it will not be decided to soli Waitaki power in Southland. The district is Monowai’s, and should be served from Monowai. At relatively cheap cost the needed new unit could be installed, and apart from the satisfying of an insistent demand for more power the present capital cost per kilowatt installed could be substantially reduced, and this is the key figure in the finances of any hydro-electric system. Wc hope soon to hear of the Southland board’s decision to develop more power. Perhaps some of the NN aitaki power will supply the district around Waipahi and Clinton, for there is an unserved gap about the northern boundary of the Southland Power Board “district and the southern boundary of the Otago Power Board district. It is .understood that when \Yaitaki power becomes available the Otago Power Board will cease to be a bulk customer of Waipori power and will use Waitaki current, thus enabling the Dunedin City Corporation to cater more freely for Dunedin’s requirements. In May, 1933, the Monowai River rose in heavy flood with great suddenness and bit a piece out of the bank on which rested the southern end of the traffic bridge just below the weir which diverts the required amount or water to the canal leading to the pipe line. The engineer in charge of the headworks (Mr Alfred Walker), returning from a visit to the dam at the lake at about 2 a.m. on a very rough night, had the narrowest of escapes from driving his car into the gap through which a raging torrent surged. By the time daylight arrived he had designed a suspension foot bridge with a big factor of safety (breaking stress would be about two tons), and in eight hours this was constructed and ready for use. For over ten months this makeshift has apparently satisfied the board. At any rate, the traffic bridge remains as the flood left it. This necessitates wheeled traffic crossing by an adjacent ford, but whether this latter is negotiable depends on the amount of water being wasted or by-passed over the lip of the weir before mentioned. The Irritating and most uneconomic and inconvenient hitch is due to a dispute between the Power Board and the Public Works Department as to whose duty it is to repair' the bridge, for though mostly used by Power Board employees it is not exclusively so, as it is on a public highway. Tbe pettiness of the whole business is humiliating. In our system of over-government inspectors and regulations abound for insisting that we do a great many unnecessary things in the conduct of our business, but when' an urgently necessary work such as this crops up officialdom barely takes cognisance. The ford might in the meantime be rendered far oftener negotiable if the board, at no great outlay, installed the originally designed system of sluice gates, operated electrically by distant control at the power house, at the intake at Lake Monowai. At present there is a primitive system of man-handling heavy planks or beams which are dropped or lifted in the grooves of the gateways, and the intake is distant four miles from the power house. Engineers may chafe, but a majority of one on any hoard of laymen may retard progress and prevent the full benefit being derived from past expenditure through a cheeseparing policy which onlookers declare to be highly uneconomic.