WAIRERE FALLS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XIII, Issue 1333, 26 February 1920, Page 2

WAIRERE FALLS.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—The figures given by your Borough Engineer, and published in your issue of the 14th inst., as to the consumption of electricity during January in Te Kuiti provide a striking illustration that gives one some conception of the amount of power that is running to waste at Wairere Falls, even during the dry season. Provided a dam is constructed above the Falls so that, nothwithstanding violent fluctuations in the daily demand, no appreciable volume of water is allowed to pass down the river except through the turbines, the possible average consumption ot power during the dry months will be 500 h.p. Now a unit of electricity is one and a third h.p. for one hour, so that the possible consumption of electricity from the Falls during January will be 500 divided by one and a-third, and then multiplied by 744, the number of hours in January. This gives 279,000 units, whereas the actual consumption of electricity in Te Kuiti last January is given by the Borough Engineer as 10,610 units. This means that the consumption of electricity in Te Kuiti at the present time is not 4 per cent of that available from the Wairere Falls, even when judged on the flow in the dry season.—l am, etc., H. W. CLIMIE AND SON, H. R. CLIMIE. (Assoc. M. Inst., C.E.)