HYDRO-ELECTRICITY.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 1562, 18 June 1920, Page 5

HYDRO-ELECTRICITY.

BRITISH ENGINEER'S VIEWS.

Sir Arnold Gridley, K.8.E., a prominent British electrical engineer, is at present in Christchureh. He was knighted by the British Government for his war work. He relinquished his Government duties on March 31, 1020, and sailed for New Zealand on the same dav, partly on holiday and partly to study the probable development of hydro-electric production and transmission with an eye to business. This is his first visit to the Dominion, "Wherever it is commercially practicable," said Sir Arnold Gridley, in an interview, "there is no question at all that hydro-electric development should be actively pushed. To my view it is the most valuable asset which this country possesses. One thing that impresses me is the development which has taen place here in Christchureh. I read the figures the other day with astonishment. The load factor here, having regard to th«; characteristics of the place, is one of the highest I know of in the world." Sir Arnold Gridley visited the Lake Coleridge power -house, and was greatly impressed by it. It had been well planned, soundly engineered, and launched without any waste of money. The only point where he could criticise was that it would have been better to have adopted a bolder policy at the start, and to have gone for at least double the present supply. The future policy of the department in hydro-electric installation should be a little bolder.