UTILISATION OF WATER TOWER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12239, 7 April 1903, Page 5

UTILISATION OF WATER TOWER.

STATEMENT BY THE PREMIER. [BY TELEGRAPH.PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Inveecaegill, Monday. The Premier was waited upon by a deputation consisting of members of Parliament, the Mayor, and others, who asked that the experts the Government had arranged to obtain for the purpose of reporting on the practicability of the utilisation of the rivers in the colony for generating electricity should visit Southland. The Premier said that the Government had decided to communicate with the Agent-General, asking him to send an expert from Europe,' and the Ministry were also in communication with America, with I the object of obtaining the services of an American expert. He (the Premier) re- ! ceived a reply from the Agent-General the other day in connection with the matter, and that would be dealt with ' on his return to Wellington. There was also a communication from America that would be considered. When the experts arrived he hoped to have the scheme complete. His idea was to subdivide the colony into industrial districts, and for our own engineers to inspect and report and measure the velocity, etc., of the streams, and thus compute the horse-power in each of the streams, so as to be in a position to select the best of them—that is, those with the greatest power, having regard also to their | convenience, and to let the special experts report on those particular rivers and give details. They would then be in a position to place the matter before Parliament. His idea was that the local bodies would not be able to raise the money, but it might be raised in the colony and controlled by the local authorities, or by boards, they to take the responsibility of paying the Government the interest • on the work of installation, and to deal locally with those who required motive power. This was the scheme that would come before Parliament.

A labourer named W. L. Eugene was found in H. Basedow's wine cellar, at Tanunda, South Australia, . drowned. He was head downwards in a tank containing 1500 gallons of wine. He was -on nightduty in the cellar, and went to work under the influence of beer. The jury found that ho came to his death by accidentally falling into the. tank while under the influence of liquor. . ' , '' ; - In an address, the president of the New South Wales Engineering Association (Mr. Rae) said that New South Wales, with its supplies of coal, iron, and other minerals, was destined to become the principal manufacturing State of the Commonwealth. Scarcity of hop-pickers is being considerably felt in some of the Nelson gardens, and the" Colonist has been informed that two fields have been abandoned by one grower simply because he could not get labour. . A movement is said to be on foot in the city to collect young fellows and girls, and establish a sort of " hop-picking bee," in order to help the farmers, ; ';: ■ A HAPPY THOUGHT leading to the production of a useful article has often brought the inventor: a fortune. t See handbook on "Patents." Free from Baldwin and Rayward, Legal Chambers, Queen-street, Auckland. , '. " The annual meeting of the City District Football Club'--will be : held , at ' the Thistle Hotel this evening.