ARAPUNI DAM WORKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18299, 16 January 1923, Page 8

ARAPUNI DAM WORKS.

''hi i-i --- ; --"ltpi "" '"* " PRELIM NARY , OPERATIONS. ' CLEARING OF THE SITE. , VALUABLE METAL-DISCOVERY Some information regarding the present position of the works in connection with the Arapuni hydro-eleotric scheme were: suppled ' yesterday by /Mr, y&;Sfc '■ Darby, of /Arapuni. : At present about a doaen men, under the engineer-in-chargo, Mr, A. Lush, are engaged in stripping the dam site of the loose masses of rocks to enable an exact survey of the solid walls to be made. The staff has just returned from a camp 12 miles up stream, where a 250 ft. face of the hardest blue rock has 'been discovered and traced back about a mile landwards. The officials of the Public Works Department /highly of tho quality .of the, metal, which, they say, is ideal for -.-concrete or road work. ,As the face rises directly 'from tile river it will be possible; to load the metal by means of shoots into barges, which may "be towed down-stream.to a. point whence the metal may be conveyed by a tram, way to the dam cite. After the Arapuni Lake has been formed and the rapids above the dam. have been obliterated it will be. possible to take the metal by means of the barges to the dam itself. If by that time a railway to Putaruru is in-existence it will afford the means to readily convey the metal through the Putaruru district to various district* at present in want of good road metal. ' It is believed, that the metal will belauded at the dam site at a cost of only four or five. shillings a yard, compared with the present price of 28s a *yard paid for metal obtained from Waihi.. When the poles now lying at Putaruru and Cambridge are ereoted a supply of' electricity to the extent, of 200 .horsepower will be available from Hdrahora, six miles downstream,-to work the concrete mixers, drive the rock drills, and provide the lighting for the future camps. Along the proposed-new route some 8£ miles of railway or road wi11... -connect ' Arapuni with Putaruru, the rich dairying centre of Pukoturua being traversed en route. During the present summer the Arapuni Gorge has been visited by hundreds of people. advantage • being taken of tho Public Works Department's track to reach the river-bank 3Gof£ below the top of the gorge. An interesting comparison between the proposed works, at Arapuni with other hydro-electric schemes was made by Mr. Darby.' > He stated that when fully developed 4 tho Arapuni installation will contain 12 or 13 sets, each "of which will equal the present, outputs, from Lake Coleridge and Horahora combined. ' Hdrahora will reach its full capacity in a few months, when the provision of the two 2000 k.w units will bring the plant up' to about 14,000 horse-power. Horahora will be limited to this as the head of water there is only 27ft., compared with 167 ft. at Arapuni. The minimum flow of water at Arapuni is 6300 cubic feet per second. Mr. Darby states that, surprising as it may appear, people 'have very har.y ideas concerning the location of Arapuni. He has come across many instances of a supposition that Arapuni is a river of that name instead of ■ being ,a gorge through which the waters of the great Waikato thunder on their seaward course. It is of interest to mention that > a straight line drawn from Te Awamutu . to Putaruru would cross the Waikato at the point at which it enters the gorge.