HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16796, 12 March 1918, Page 7

HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER

HAWKE'S BAY ACTIVITY.

WAIKAREMOANA SCHEME.

A visit of members of Parliament and ethers interested is to lie paid on Thursday to Lake Waikaremoana. The trip, which will occupy six days, will be commenced from Napier. It has been arranged by the Waikaremoana Hydro-Electric League, coneisting of public, local, commercial and representative bodies from Dnnnevirke in the south to the East Cape in the north. The league was established to arouso public and national interest in the development of the North Island by means of the furtherance of hydro-electrical installations. This week's* visit to Lake Waikaremoana is designed to enable the party to inspect the lake and determine its possibilities in the supply of hydro-dectrical power as a national scheme. The lake is Situated in the Wairoa County, at an elevation of 2015 ft above sea level, and it contains an area of 24 square miles. ' Among the visitors from Auckland is Mr. A Harris, M.P. for Waitemata, who left for Napier last evening. Seen prior to his departure, he said that it was not an exaggeration to say that probably no other country in the world with such a wealth of potential power was less advanced in the generation and supply of electrical energy. " There is no reason why our railways should not be worked by electricity, thus greatly reducing the cost of haulage, and overcoming the constantly-recurring difficulty of obtaining adequate coal supplies." Mr." Harris continued. "Then, again, advantage could be taken of tho possibility of constructing light railways in the country districts, now isolated as a result of the inability of metalline; the roads. Without some such scheme, I am afraid tho reading problem in the North Island, especially in the Auckland Province is insurmountable, owing to tho extreme difficulty of obtaining metal supplies. "Probably no one source of supply is sufficiently potent for the whole of the North Island without, from time to lime, fupplementing it with auxiliary 'supplies. Several conjoint schemes are, therefore, considered more practicable, particularly i having regard to the widely-scattered districts consuming the power, and the inaccessible nature of much of the country through which the transmission-lines would have to pass." Mr. Harris went on to say that Mr. F. Parry, chief electrical engineer, in his interim report submitted to tie Minister for Public Works about twelve months ago, advised three schemes :— (l) Lake Waikaremoana, for Hawke's Bay; (2) Arapuni Gorge, for Auckland; and (3) Mangahao River, for Wellington. These he proposed should eventually be linked up, .thus securing a continuity of electrical supply. In order of preference. Mr. Parry put the Auckland and Wellington schemes as of greater immediate importance than Hawke's Bay.