ELECTRICAL POWER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15717, 9 September 1911, Page 8

ELECTRICAL POWER.

The allusions that were made by the Prime Minister last night to tho development of the dominion’s water power encourage the hope that cheap electricity is soon to be available in our towns and cities. Canada is pointing tho way to Now Zealand in connection with the use of the “ white coal,” and in tho province of Ontario especially very remarkable results are being secured. The streams and lakes of tho province are estimated to represent over seven million horse-power in potential electric energy, hut the engineers chose to concentrate their efforts at first on tho Canadian side of the Niagara Falls. The installation was completed at tho end of last year, and to-day electricity to the amount of 514,000 horse-power is available for the service of the people of the province. The main distribution line extends from the falls in a northwesterly direction to the town of Dundas, a distanco of about fifty miles, and then divides into three branches. A line forty miles long roaches Toronto and the other two lines proceed by different routes to the town of London, 0110 co.vering seventy-five miles and tho other one hundred and twenty miles. London in turn is connected with St Thomas, fourteen miles away, and an additional extension to Windsor, a distance of one hundred miles, is under construction. The wires are of nluminium and are slung from steel towers placed nearly two hundred yards apart, while the current is supplied at the extraordinarily high pressure of 110,000 volts, in order that the loss in transmission may be minimised. The towns served by this system are using the power for all tho purposes of industry and daily life, and the saving to the consumers, who would otherwise have to buy coal, is estimated at £4 a year for each horse-power. But the enterprise of the Provincial Commission which has undertaken the great work has not been exhausted. It has been announced that wherever twenty farmers go to a county council and ask for a supply of current the Commission will erect low-tension wires, tapping the main lines, and serving the farmhouses. Many thousands of the Ontario farmers will be enabled to use electricity for lighting and lic-ating purposes and for the driving of small motors which will cut the chaff, milk tlie cows and even drive the ploughs. The Canadians do not seem to have been troubled by any fear that their venture would not pay, and. their transmission lines, it will he noticed, are longer than any that will bo required in connection with New Zealand’s hydro-electric stations.