POWER FROM THE WAIKATO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16678, 24 October 1917, Page 6

POWER FROM THE WAIKATO.

One of the principal recommendations made by Mr. Parry, the electrical engineer of the Public Works Department, in his report last February on the development of electrical energy for the North Island, was that the construction of the schemes for the Auckland and the Wellington districts should proceed simultaneously. As a departmental officer, examining only the engineering aspects of the question, Mr. Parry left it to the Minister to weigh such other important factors as the commercial prospects of the two undertakings and the relative requirements of the two districts concerned. From the technical point of view, Mr. Parry showed that the Arapuni scheme has very great advantages over any other practicable source of power in the North Island, and that opinion is emphatically confirmed in his annual report. The rapid development of the Auckland Province, and the prospects of a constant increase b the demand for power immediately the scheme is brought into operation, guarantee financial success. In spite of these considerations, the Arapuni scheme is being neglected while the preliminary work in connection with the Mangahao undertaking is being expedited to such an extent that the Department has already reached the stage of canvassing prospective consumers of power in Wellington. There is an important difference between the two schemes in respect of the capital cost involved. It is proposed to initiate the production of power in the North Island bj installing plants capable of producing 25,000 horse-power near Shannon and 30.000 horse-power near Hora Hora, and the estimated cost of conservation works, generating machinery, and distribution systems is the same per unit of power in each case. But while an expenditure of £1,000,000 at Shannon will produce a maximum of only 25,000 horse-power, so that further demands must be supplied from other sources, the estimate of £1,200,000 for the Waikato scheme includes the cost of a dam and other works which will be sufficient for the ultimate production of 120,000 horse-power. Thus, in its complete stage, the cost per unit will be reduced to a fraction of the cost of the energy from the Mangahao River, and every development of the generating plant will progressively cheapen the cost of power to the Mr.

Parry now states that while the cost for the initial stages is within the economical limit, for the ultimate development it will be " remarkably low," and he anticipates that in the future the Waikato plant will become the principal source of supply for the Wellington district also. In these circumstances it would be interesting to know on what grounds the Minister justifies the'precedence given to the Southern scheme and why no effort is being made to ascertain the extent of the demand for power in Auckland.