POWER SCHEME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22469, 13 July 1936, Page 12

POWER SCHEME

SUPPLY IN THE NORTH COMMITTEE'S PROPOSALS DIESEL ENGINE COSTS At tho request of the committee of tho proposed Bay of Islands Power District, some observations 011 tho committee's proposals wore made by its consulting engineer, Mr. Lloyd Mandeno, of Mandeno, Leo and Brown, Auckland. An interesting review of tho possibilities of electrification in the Far North, contributed by Mr. J. Kelly, of Kohukohu, had, said Mr. Mandeno, been published in the Hkkald. Mr. Kelly, as one-time engineer to the Hokianga County, had an intimate knowledge of that county and its environs, and his observations were, in consequence, of particular interest and value. While he considered Mr, Kelly's views entitled to tho fullest respect, Mr. Mandeno thought that some of his remarks indicated an incomplete knowledge of tho committee's proposals. Tho committee fully recognises that the most developed and profitable areas of its district are in the Bay of Islands and Mangonui Counties, and that to attempt to immediately carry out a complete scheme of reticulation in Hokianga would not be profitable. Position of Hokianga Tho committee recognises that if it carries out a scheme confined to tho former two counties only, this would be successful without bringing on to the lines any of the available load in Hokianga. As, however, the board's main line would require to traverse Hokianga in order to reach Mangonui County, the committee considered it desirable that Hokianga bo included in the scheme so that such of its settlers «s desired to have tho supply, and who were in a position to guarantee annual payments for current sufficient to make their connection to tho board's lines a profitable connection, could obtain the supply. That is to say, 110 money wotdd be spent on reticulating Hokianga until the Power Board wore first assured that 110 loss would result, and so no rato would be required to make good such loss.

The question of whether Hokianga came into the scheme or remained out was one entirely for Hokianga residents to decide, said Mr. Mandeuo. They should remember that loan money is obtainable at rates not much over half of what some of the earlier boards paid, that certain essential supplies such as copper cable is now less than half the price that ruled before the slump, also that definite progress in methods of cheapening the cost of country electrical reticulation lias in recent years been made. Mr. Kelly had expressed doubts of the success of electrification in Hokianga, owing to competition of the Diesel engine. This was a subject, said Mr. Mandeno, on which there is much misconception. Ho had been officially informed that of the thousands of milking motors in five of the larger South Auckland boards of which he had inquired, not one of them had been displaced by a Diesel engine. In the Opunake district, he was informed that four motors were to be displaced, but there were special circumstances accounting for that.

Question of Cost Mr. Kelly had mado the remarkable assertion that a milking shed Diesel could be run for £4 per season, whereas a report by the Department of Agriculture showed that electric power cost £4O. He presumed Mr. Kelly based his statement on the report of the 1931 Commission on the Dairy Industry. This report certainly did not, as Mr. Kelly stated, give tho cost of running an electric motor in a shed at 10s per cow per annum. The figure given in the report was tho average cost of power, whether benzine, oil or electric, in tho various districts surveyed. The figures given are as follows: —North Auckland power cost per cow, 9s; South Auckland, 8s 4d; Tauranga, 7s 6d. It was not possible to distinguish in the report as between oil engine nnd electric motor costs, except that it could be said that North Auckland was largely benzine-driven, while Tauranga, for instance, was mainly electric. It should bo noted that tho costs given for electric power included water heating and lighting. These two latter are recognised to be of great convenience in dairy sheds. If Diesel engines were adopted, hot water and lighting have to be found by some other means and when to the costs of providing theso is added the cost of interest and depreciation on tho price of a Diesel engine, then the economy of a Diesel engine disappears. A Diesel user also runs tho risk of interference in his supplies and also the probability of a tax on oil fuel by tho Government.