HYDRO-ELECTRICITY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10896, 10 May 1921, Page 3

HYDRO-ELECTRICITY

THE UFE OF INDUSTRY. WHAT CANADA IS DOING. By the end of 1921, according to a statement by Sir Adam Beck, the HydroElectric Power Commission of the Province of Ontario, Canada, will have u capital investment of 210 million dollars (2642,000,000; in fourteen districts, supplying 264 municipalities with electnoity from twenty-one hydro-electric post plants; and apart from the Decew Falls plant of the Dominion Power and Transmission Company, and the Canadian Niagara Power Company’s plant at Niagara Falls, the Commission vr ill have an absolute monopoly of hydro-electric energy in Ontario. According to Sir Adam -Beck the investment of the.Citv of Toronto in cash and -direct liabilities in connection with the "hydro” power and lighting is 471800,090 dollars (269,560,000), of which eight’ millions (.£1,600,000) is guaranteed by the province, whereas the investment of the province ito-if is onl a little more than 25 million dollars (2e5.000,0e0). “It is not always possible,” states the "Electrical World” editorially, ‘to place one’s finger on tangible evidence of what water-power/ means to a community, State, or, nation. However, in the case of Canada, especially the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, -the task is easy, and the exhibit instantly convincing. These provincee represent the industrial hope of the Dominion, and hydro-electric power is the great impelling force. Serving the Provinoe of Ontario is the immense network of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission. Remarkable as has been the growth of the governmental enterprise, the demand for power still exceeds the jrisiblo supply. In Quebec the increase in the use of hydro-electric energy has been just as phenomenal as in Ontario. The Shawinigan Water and Power- Company has, to mention just one of the companies serving the province, grown from 20,000 horse-power in 1905 to 220,000 in 1920, and cannot be said to have reaohed maturity yet. Both Ontario and Quebec realise what they owe to hydroelectrla development, and look to their water power 6 as assets with which to attraot industries and build up industrial and community life, ofgreat importance. Indeed ” the ‘Hydro* and Shawinigan concerns; are' amongst the most complete and extensive groups of hydro-electric development in the world. Blessed with enormous water power resources Canada has used them to her profit and happiness from coast to coast. Her greatest industries, moreover, could not live without them.” .