POWER FOR AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18347, 13 March 1923, Page 6

POWER FOR AUCKLAND.

The situation in regard to electricity supply, as described yesterI day by the chairman of the Auckland i Power Board, is sufficiently dis--11 turbing to justify the anxiety with , which the present state of the Arapuni scheme is regarded. A year ago, there was some doubt whether the demand would overtake the additions to the board's steam plant before power would be available from Arapuni; to-day the board anticipates that the station will be fully taxed within two years, and that it will be faced with further capital additions to keep pace with the growth of consumption during the j remainder of the contract period for the construction of Arapuni. But ! beyond that, the board is not con- ' vinced that the Public Works De- ! partment will be able to deliver I power in 1928 ; it regards .1930 as I the earliest possible dfite for the j completion of the scheme. On j this point, Mr. Holdsworth's obserJ vations, which are no doubt based ; on expert advice, directly challenge | the recent assurance by the Minister j that the department will deliver j power within the stated time. The department has barely five years to ; fulfil its undertaking, and the very magnitude of the work casts a | shadow upon the Minister's confidence. It is true that the principal 1 works of construction—the dam, the ; pipe-line and the generating machinj ery—are to be entrusted to contraci tors, but the preliminary works, | which the department itself proposes Ito undertake, are extensive, and I some of them must be completed before a contractor can begin operations. There must be a road or a railway from Putaruru to the gorge, a tramway from distant quarry sites, accommodation for workmen and engineers, storage for materials, and transmission of power from Horahora for the constructional machinery. Granting that all has been done that the Minister recently catalogued, it must be admitted that progress has not yet gone beyond the stage of plans and specifications and . that the invitation of tenders for the first contract will mean very little until a great deal of the preparatory work has been translated into actual accomplishment on the site and its approaches. The only justification for postponing the Arapuni scheme was doubt as to the capacity of the province to absorb its output. With the demand in the Auckland power distr?t outstripping the board's olant and the consumption in the Waikato greater than Horahora can supply, there is no longer any case for delay, but an overwhelming argument for pressing forward the construction works to the earliest possible completion. According to the latest return, there were nine men employed at Arapuni, though there is room on essential preliminary work for hundreds. So lone as that position continues, the Minister cannot wonder that, there is anxiety throughout the Auckland Province. 1 T