UTILISATION OF WATER POWER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIX, Issue 14610, 18 February 1908, Page 8

UTILISATION OF WATER POWER.

DEPUTATION TO THE PREMIER. [From Our Correspondent.] HAMILTON, February 17. A large deputation, comprising representatives from various local bodies, brought under the notice of the Premier during his visit to Hamilton the question of the utilisation of water power for the provision of electric light and power. The immense possibilities of the Waikato River for the purpose were referred to, and it was urged that the venture would prove a profitable one to the Government. The importance of the work from the municipal, the agricultural and the dairying point of view was urged upon the Premier by the various speakers. In tho course of his reply, Sir Joseph Ward stated that the matter was one of great importance, besides being a very extensive undertaking. The advantages of electrical power could not be denied for a moment, and the uses to which it could be put wero very great. Whether they wero going to get the low cost which was assumed was another proposition. At one time he, as a layman, thought they could electrify the railways from the great water powers which were running to waste. A recent report, however, which had been obtained in Victoria, showed that this would be the most costly method of running the railways. To put it briefly, there was a very grave doubt against it, due to the enormous amount or capital required, that it would not, in the opinion of experts, pay the Government to carry out the scheme from a railway point of. view. The Government originally intended to harness the waters themselves and let the power out, and the only thing that stopped them was the fact that it would cost several millions of money. The country could uot do all these things at once, for there were now about £60,000,000 of money borrowed, and this financial year they were spending about £2,900,000. If the Government were going to carry on a great system of harnessing the rivers it meant that the construction of railways must he stopped while they carried out the work, for the country had a limit on its borrowing powers. However, the Government intended to make regulations and to gazette them soon, stipulating the conditions under which water power could be acquired by the Government or private individuals or companies, always providing that the poorest man would get his power at exactly the same rate as the richest. (Applause.) It would be misleading on his part to say that the Government was going to hold on to those water powers for utilisation by the State, but regulations would be gazetted, as he had stated, to provide for them being utilised in the interests of tho people. At present the country could not afford to go into the very doubtful position of having £8,000,000 or £1J),000,000 to put on top of ordinary public requirements, for that would mean that something would have to stop.