CONCERN ABOUT ARAPUNI.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 9 September 1929, Page 2

CONCERN ABOUT ARAPUNI.

NEEDS FULL POWER LOAD DURING WINTER AUCKLAND, Last Night.

The. statement that the board was greatly concerned, with what it saw at Arapuni was made by Mr. W. J. Holdsworth, chairman of the Auckland Electric Power Board, who has just returned with members from a visit to Arapuni, where they inspected the damage caused by erosion.

Mr. Holdsworth said he was going to Wellington on Tuesday to press upon the Minister of Public Works the need of the utmost urgency in pushing on with preventive works. Ho added: “ft seems inevitable that the river must be diverted and the power-house closed down until repairs arc effected. Our groat concern is that this should be done before the winter, when there will be a heavy demand for power.” The real extent of the damage andthe amount of work required would uot be known until the river was diverted. It was essential that this should bo done as early as possible. What had happened down there had proved conclusively the tricky nature of tlic country. It was hard to tell from one day <0 the other what would happen. Mr. Holdsworth said that if repair work wore carried out during the summer, the board, with its own plant working to full capacity, could carry on with Bora Hora. with assistance from Wailii, Tauranga and the Government’s diesel plant at Penrose. During the summer months, the board would also be able to assist other districts at times when not on its own peak load but in the winter, it needed all the power it could got.