COST OF POWER SCHEMES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20104, 15 November 1928, Page 10

COST OF POWER SCHEMES.

There , has been some discussion during the election campaign of the expenditure on hydro-electricity schemes, Ihe round figure of £2,000,000 having been set against both Mangahao and Arapuni in contrast with the respective estimates of £-138,000 and £1,078,700 given in Mr. Evan Parry's report issued in 1018. The comparison is scarcely fair, sinco Mr. Parry stated in his report that he had based his estimates on rates not exceeding 12 per cent, above pre-war prices ; as Mangahao was started in 1019 and Arapuni in 1021, an allowance of 50 per cent, would be reasonable. Moreover, those amounts provided for only headworks and generating machinery, whereas the £2,000,000 now cited includes expenditure on elaborate transmission systems, for which separate estimates were given by Mr. Parry. Actually, the head works at Mangahao have cost about £1,000,000, and, if this is more than was anticipated, the fact should be recognised that a considerable addition has arisen through the unforeseen expansion of the demand for power. The scheme was planned to provide 2*1,000 h.p., and at an early stage the Public Works Department made an allocation among the several local authorities. basing its estimates on the expectation that the plant would meet the needs of its territory until supply from Waikaremoana was available. The greatest difficulty was experienced in persuading the various bodies to guarantee their allocations, and it was only by proposing a scale of guarantees for successive years up to the fifth that the department was able to secure contracts. Instead of the load reaching the capacity of the station at the end of next year, the station is already heavily overloaded. In view of the reluctance of the power boards to give the necessary guarantees, the Government might have held them to their contracts, but it decided immediately to construct additional storage and to hasten the Waikaremoana schema so that consumers should not suffer through the mistakes of their representatives. Otherwise. the third dam at Mancahao might never have been necessary. The position at Arapuni has also been exaggerated. Mr. Parry's estimate was £1.073.700: the contract price for the headworks was £1,170,801, and the department has undertaken that the actual cost will not greatly exceed that figure.