NO STEAM PLANT FOR POWER IS AVAILABLE

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 September 1947, Page 3

NO STEAM PLANT FOR POWER IS AVAILABLE

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, Sept. 25. The State Hydro-electric Department’s chief electrical engineer (Mr A. E. Davenport), who was overseas, had cabled that he could not get any delivery dates for a steam plant, said the Minister in charge of the department (Mr R. Semple) in an address to the supply authorities conference today. There had been a lot of baby talk about neglecting to buy a steam plant, said Mr Semple, and an order had been in at Sweden for seven years. It was no use getting plant four or five years late. “This little country is about third on the map with the greatest potentiality of hydraulic power,” said Mr Semple. “We have power here running to waste; Why grope about the world for steam plant? The commonsense thing is to push on at top speed with hydro development. “Where are we going to get coal for more steam plant? There is not enough to keep the present steam stations going.” . Railway engines were being converted to oil fuel because there was not enough coal, said Mr Semple. The country had to pay £lO a ton for coal from America to keep the trains g° in g- , In answer to critics who suggested oil-burning steam stations, he asked if New Zealand should spend thousands for oil when it had water power. There was a lot of misconception about stand-by steam plants, said Mr F. T. M. Kissel, general manager of the department. Statistics showed that the only places they were used overseas was where it was cheaper and better to use steam plants. At the same time he would not say there was no room in the New Zealand system for a .steam plant provided it could be obtained immediately, but as far as his department could ascertain there was no steam plant available soon enough.

Speaking of the present hydro development, Mr Kissel said no one would' gainsay that there had been hold-ups and delays in getting the work done. “People don’t work as hard as they used to,” he said. “The five-day week and things like that are not conducive to maximum work. The Minister is aliVe to the position and is keen to see that, we get the maximum output a man and a machine, particularly on hydro-elec-tric work.”