Hydro-Electricity.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 44, 4 February 1920, Page 5

Hydro-Electricity.

NATURAL USE OF NATURE. THE SECRET OF PROGRESS. A LESSON FROM TORONTO. A stranger visiting Toronto, On-’ tario, the home of electricity, must be very unobservant indeed if he does not come away with the fixed conviction that the secret of the city’s rapid progress is to be found !in the cheap hydro-electric power given to it by the harnessing of the world famous falls at Niagara. I Toronto, situated within 80 miles of. the greatest and best means on earth for developing electrical power, was] not slow to make a natural use of | nature, and the result is to-day that 1 it is the largest manufacturing city I in Canada. To gain conception of j its importance as an industrial centre it need only be mentioned that it has no less than 2181 factories within its city limits. American manufacturers, recognising the great advantages it affords, are literally faffing over each other in their eagerness to establish branch factories, and at this moment there are 124 such establishments being operated by the largest and best known manufacturing concerns in the United States. Toronto truly gives the most remarkable demonstration in the world how hydro-electricity will build up a town and force the growth of a district. With a certain assurance of an unlimited supply of cheap power for its industries, all the other needful requirements of a manufacturing dentre come in simple sequence. Conveniences of communication and transport, in the matter of harbours and railways, simply grow as their need arises. Toronto wanted room on the waterfront for the building of an industrial district, and no sooner was the need recognised than the town spent eleven million dollars on reclaiming 1000 acres of land on the shores of the lake and thirteen million dollars on improving the harbour and waterfront generally. Thus in the city was the danger of congestion removed by the creation of a large industrial area for manufacturers, showing that all city improvements and growth follow the provision of cheap electrical energy just as smoothly and certainly as night follows day. WAIKAREMOANA’S POTENTIAL POWER. And what the hydro has done for this Canadian town it will do for any town and district within a reasonable reach of a source of supply, that is, of course, provided the people are wide awake and progressive enough to make use of the great gift which nature has given them. In other words, what Niagara has done for Toronto, Waikaremoana will do for Napier and Hastings if we will let it. A New Zealander who knows the water-power resources of his country will, if he visits Toronto, be impelled to feelings of shame and regret, because the scenes of industrial and commercial activity he sees there will speak to him loudly of the progressive spirit and enterprise of the Canadians, and the lack of these virtues in the New Zealanders, in having allowed their country’s natural resources to lay dormant for so many years. New Zealand has been more richly endowed by nature than has Canada. It has everything that the great Dominion has and a good deal more besides. The Canadians have to fight against nature for four or five months every winter, the New Zealanders have nature working for them all the year round. Yet the Canadians, notwithstanding their great winter handicap, are more progressive than the New Zealanders. Why is it 1 It is because the dwellers under the sunny skies of the south have too easy an existence. They, have yet t# awaken. i But the time to throw off the lethargic lassitude has arrived. Conditions everywhere have been changed by the war, and the nation that refuses to adapt itself to _ the new order of things will find itself left far behind in the new world-wide competition for trade. The first thing we in New Zealand, and in Hawke’s Bay in particular, have to do is to develop our water-power resources. It is as unreasonable to. expect grass to grow without sun-j shine and rain as to think that industries will flourish without, cheap electrical power. Toronto gives it, to her manufacturers for 16 dollars per horse-power per year, and when, the new power plants at Niagara are completed, the price will be subject 1 to a considerable reduction. Waikaremoana, efficiently constructed ( and administered, would give pro-; portionatcly a power as cheap. | Nature has placed one of the greatest blessings at our door. Shall ; we continue in our blind folly to refuse to accept it 1 ? LET US BE PRACTICAL. It is time we awakened intellectually. Let us too make a natural use of nature, and above all let us be practical. Let us substitute where we can electrical power for steam-power, electric light for gas light, and do away for ever with the waste .of money and energy that the use of coal involves. In connection with electrical development, someone has written that the modern man is above all things intensely practical. He is, furthermore, impatient, exacting, and averse to theorising. The demands upon him are multitudinous and insistent. To meet his requirements there has been developed in later years what might’ almost be called a new human attribute, a combination of imagination, courage, persistence, and science, to which every achievement of our race has contributed something of value. Cumulative processes have been set in motion which, in the last few decades, have been transforming our customs and modes of life. We have remodelled even our thought and point of view. This intellectual awakening has taken a wide sweep, and amongst its results is a change of our interpretation of economic questions. Me no longer regard the soil and the physical contents of the earth as inexhaustible. We are beginning to doubt the wisdom of overdrawing our terrestrial balance. We have something more than a glimmering of the fact that nature, if used wisely, will serve to the end of time, but if abused will ultimately confront us with unprofitable aridity. The world has seen no more insensate waste than that of coal. Consider then the result of our terrestrial balance when coal is drawn hundreds of miles bv the expenditure of more coal and that of the total used, only from 6 to 10 per cent is ultimately transformed into motive power, for which it is thus lavished. Consider further that to realise this fractional per cent a tremendous investment is unavoidable, an investment out of all proportion to the result secured. Consider also that the use of fuel is objectionable, harmful, and relatively dangerous.

NAPIER’S INDUSTRIAL FUTURE. Given the speedy development jot Waikaremoana’s great water povto there is nothing to prevent tne fita* mediate growth of Napier and Haitings into great industrial the Torontos of the Southern PapL fic. The manufacturer of to-daj certain basic requirements. Theee are power, labour, and transport*- ' tion. If then the first and the third of these are abundantly available, ~-j the second, labour, will naturally j gravitate to the same centre. Especially so may thus be expected ait > the Hawke’s Bay towns, for they J have the added advantages of a delightful climate and a productive surrounding country. , HARBOUR AND RECLAIMA- • TIONS. As has happened at Toronto, to - the supply of cheap power In ’ Hawke's Bay will be quickly followed by the construction of a harbour meet the requirements of so progressive a district, and also the reclaiitt* ation of the lagoon marshes which J; are now lying waste on each side of z ’ the Greenmeadows road. This large area of at present useless swamp could be rapidly and economically reclaimed it hydro-electric power were available. There are powerful hydraulic dredges with a capacity ok ’ 1000 yards, of spoil per hour worxiita lin other parts of the world. One M ’ these put into commission at Napier would not only make short work <rf ' the reclamation but would also de much to solve the harbour construetion problem. The reclaimed land , would be of great value, and possibly before many years the Harbour ’ Board’s revenue from it would be . > sufficient to meet the interest and ' sinking fund on the cost of the har- > , bout/ The reclamations would proi perly be converted by the Harbour ' Board into industrial districts for J the location of factories, and be pn>- ; vided with every convenience and condition known to decrease the , cost of production and to increase I' facility of output; where every move from the receipt of the raw material « to the arrival of the finished product at its destination will be aceom- ! plished at the smallest cost and in the shortest time. The planning of , } this industrial district could be. SO r I arranged that every factory woUM, - £ ' have a railway siding fronting Hf* § doors, and an ocean liner wipun , sight from its windows. | INSIST ON HYDRO. .We have to-day to decide whether | Hawke’s Bay shall be progressive or .' /not, whether our district shall he In the van of industrial activity and l development in New Zealand or shall . . | lag behind while other wide-awakp towns and districts advance by leaps and bounds. It is an incontestioie 'fact that places served by chew I hydro-electricity leave less favourw towns far behind, and the handimqa • of a late start is almost certain to ■ • prove disastrous to a district’s pro* gress. Hawke’s Bay, to be in the '' | running, must instal its electritot power concurrently with the scheutiis which have now been commenced to i ' other parts of the Dominion. It cgit be done and it has got to be ! What is wanted is a determined gt* * ganisation backed by a dettoi mined public. It is the thftg lof supreme importance confroQtr ing Hawke’s Bay at moment. Nothing else approachto? .it in the scheme of the di* trict’s progress. Railways, harbour, ’ roads and industries will all come to us withotit having to exercise any great effort if we only have an un- ■ - limited supply o£ cheap power. Let then, the people of this district be up and doing. Let us organise and hold meetings and carry on prop*- ■ ganda work to show the Government that the people of the East Coast provinces refuse any longer to allow their districts to be sidetracked by string-pulling politicians. We have been too quiescent in the part. We must awaken now or it will M too late.