WAIKATO POWER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23117, 16 August 1938, Page 11

WAIKATO POWER

ADDITIONAL STATIONS UNLIKELY IN NEAR FUTURE THE MAUNGATAUTARI SURVEYS [from our own correspondent] HAMILTON, Monday The return of Government surveyors to a point on the bank of the Waikato River known as the Crow's Nest, at Maungatantari. a few miles upstream from Cambridge, has given rise to the suggestion that the Public Works Department contemplates establishing a hydro-electric station there in the near future. When interviewed on the subject, the acting-district electrical engineer, Mr. A. C. A. Caldwell, said it was not possible to give definite information regarding any probable outcome of tho surveys. It was unlikely that any further hydro-electrical works would be built in the near future. The surveys had been proceeding off and on for several years, and when the increase in the demand for power warranted the extension of the Waikato hydro-electric schemes, the most suitable site recommended in. the. survey reports would be chosen. Mr. Caldwell commented on the favourable character of the rock a'« Crow's Nest for concrete work.

So far, he said, Arapuni had been equipped with six units, and there was provision for two more. The more immediate demands for power would be met by the installation of these two units. Although no date had been fixed for adding this plant, it would be undertaken before any other possible scheme cm the "VVaikato River would be put in hand. The survey at Maungatautari was intended not only as an investigation into possible power station sites, but as a prospect for suitable quarry metal likely to be required by the department in the future.