SCHEME CONDEMNED

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 148, 12 June 1930, Page 8

SCHEME CONDEMNED

ALWAYS SOURCE OF DANGER

CHRISTCHURCH ENGINEER'S COMMENT.

The Arapuni power scheme was condemned by Mr. H. M. Chrystall on Monday last in the interview he gave to a Christchurch reporter. Mr. Chrystall said he investigated the project when it was in its early stages on behalf of a firm who had proposed •tendering for it. “I am not in the least surprised at what has happened,” said Mr. Chrysstall, who described the whole scheme as a gamble. The enterprise would in his opinion always be a source of danger and would require unnecessary expense in maintenance. Mr. Chrystall said that cavities had been discovered in the country upon which the dam and powerhouse had been erected. One of these cavities had to be plugged with hundreds of cubic yards of concrete. Large blocks of material had been seen to disappear from the bed of the spillway race as a result of the current.

Mr. Chrystall added that it was the opinion of one or two responsible enginers that the vitbration of the turbines, which are encased in mass concrete, might possibly result in an eventual slight settlement of the power-house structure into the soft beds, with a consequent rupture of the penstock tunnels. The speaker said that the whole of the country might be described as a “volcanic rubbish heap.” It therefore did not have the necessary stability to justify the establishment of a large dam and power-house and other works associated with a hydroelectric installation of such magnitude.

“DISASTER MUST FOLLOW"

ANOTHER ENGINEER’S OPINION

WRITTEN LAST OCTOBER

Writing to the “Dominion,” Wellington, on October 24 last year, Mr. J. D. Holmes, M.lnst.C.K., said:— “As things are at the spillway it is quite evident that disaster must follow quickly unless the water is prevented from flowing over the fall, or very extensive protection works undertaken. It is interesting to note that records show that more dams haw tailed through spillway trouble than from any other single cause.

“If the taxpayers will agree to the construction of white elephants such as the schemes at Arapuni and Mangahap then it is •no good howling when called upon to pay for them and their maintenance and to provide feed in the form of hard-earned cash for their insatiable appetites. These schemes must be a continual drain on the taxpayers’ purse, and in any case the financial load on the present generation is going to outweigh many times the advantages to be derived from the schemes. “In my opinion the scheme was never financially sound and if proper investigations into, and proper estimates had been made for dealing with the spillway problem, then I fail to see how anybody could reasonably have sanctioned the construction of the scheme.

“My opinion is that the earlier the country makes up its mind to abandon the Arapuni scheme and remove the everlasting danger to the lower Waikato, the better, and I fee] certain that if the problem is investigated thoroughly it will be found advantageous and economical to abandon that scheme and to establish a steam plant'on the Huntly .coalfields or harness the Arateatea Rapids.”

NEWSPAPER COMMENT

“SERIOUS MATTER FOR DOMINION.”

SAYS THE AUCKLAND “STAR.”

“The trouble that has arisen at Arapuni is certainly a very serious matter for the Dominion in general and for Auckland in particular. Already a very large amount of money

has been spent in this installation—a sum greatly exceeding the original estimates—and the nature of this mishap suggests very unpleasant possibilities for the future. In the early stages of the scheme it was argued that the character of the country at Arapuni, in an enginering sense, rendered the construction of such huge works there a rather risky experiment, and it is quite possible that, even if the present emergency is successfully tided over, it may recur later on. We need hardly enlarge upon the financial loss to the State and the hardships as well as the loss that Auckland city and district must suffer if these gloomy anticipations are fulfilled.”