The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, MAY 12, 1921. QUESTION OF EVANS BAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10898, 12 May 1921, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, MAY 12, 1921. QUESTION OF EVANS BAY

In Evans Bay is concentrated the question of Wellington city’s municipal motive and other power. The hay stands for an. expenditure of about £400,000, as authorised, with a possibility of extension, through various causes, over the formidable total of half a million sterling. The authorised money cannot be obtained in the local money market. There is a move afoot, we understand, to get the said money in Lon- | don. And that move, or even the thought of its possibility, requires careful reconsideration of the Evans Bay project. One reason is that the London market is, for oversea proposals, very limited; the Acting-Prime Minister, in fact, spoke to a deputation on Monday of that market as almost closed against the loan proposals of the Government itself. What chance, therefore, is there for this municipal half-miilibn ? But if we assume that there is a hope, we are faced with the certainty that, whatever that hope may cover, the whole of the moneys required by the municipality of Wellington for the completion of the liberal policy of works adopted by the Council last year and authorised by the. general municipal vote last September, have already been allocated. It follows that, before approaching any money market, a selection must be made of the most important of the works on the list and the most imperatively required. As the state of the money market is universally understood, we must presume that our City Council has decided—if the current statement is true that it is going to place the Evans Bay requirement on the market at once by special efFort—that the Evans Bay work is the most important, and the most imperatively required of all the works on its authorised programme of construction. Now, if the Evans Bay project can be shown not to he the most important, or the most imperatively required of the works, the application to the money market on its behalf should be stopped. If, in addition, it can be shown that the Evans Bay work iA not required at all, the case against raising money for it will ho complete. In that case, the chances of the market must be kept for the works of the programme of progress which are of the best value. Any other course would he suicidal. To begin with, the Evans Bay site is claimed to be the most favourable for the use on a large scale for power purposes of coal ,or oil. But coal has been proved to be of too great uncertainty for dependence in a city of 90,000 people. Oil is now spoken of as inadequate for the world’s supply, and the struggles of great monopolies —like the Standard Oil Company, with its command of the oil supply of realms, and its habit of adding to its scope—would make many difficulties for us. But the water power, which is to he our reliance for all time, is without these disabilities of the coal and oil of commerce, and is, moreover, cheaper and absolutely reliable. It has been urged that the

usefulness of the Evans Bay installation during the period of waiting for the water power to reach us, will justify its expense, hut the reply to that is that the water power will reach us before the Evans Bay works are ready for work. This is one of the new factors, in this problem which has come into view since the adoption of the Evans Bay site. Another argument for Eivans Bay is that, as a stand-by, the plant there is necessary. The reply to that is that the danger provided against by a stand-by plant is much exaggerated; that, in fact, the experience of Christchurch and Dunedin with electric plants has proved that this danger does not exist. This contra-argument is strengthened by the statement that, whatever small danger there may he, the Harris street plant is good enough, or can, by an expenditure appreciably less than the cost of the Evans Bay plant, be made good enough to meet it. Besides, there is the question of the plant in Harris street, which would, if. Evans Bay is proceeded with, have to be scrapped, involving a loss of probably £50,000. On the whole, then, the works at Evans Bay cannot, if these reasons are valid, be said to be imperatively necessary, . and, what is more, they are, in view of the coal and oil situations, undesirable. A far more pressing and more important work is the erection of converteis and other plant for the use of the high voltage to be obtained from the Mangahao generation works. Without them this power could not be used at all. If they are not ready before Mangahao, the Mangahao power will pass to other people. Wellington, in that case, will “miss the ’bus.” But Mangahao will —here we have another new factor for the consideration of the electric power problem—be able to give Wellington this power in two years. Now, . the estimated time for the completion of the converters is two and a half years. This makes the question of these converters of supreme importance. If they are not ready before Mangahao, we “miss the ’bus,” as we have said. The situation thus forming requires the syeeding-up by all possible means of the construction of the converter and other plant. The suocess of the whole water electricity scheme for all time depends on this speeding-up of the converter and other plant. If that fails, Old King Coal will be for ever king of the motive power or Wellington city. Instead of attacking the money market for Evans Bay, we must attack the obstacle, whatever it may be, that stands between us and the acceptance of the Mangahao electrio current the moment it is ready for us. Evans Bay —and everything else—must give way to the converter and its- auxiliaries; That is the most imperative work in the progressive authorised municipal plan. It is absolutely ‘vital. If the money market and any other markets are limited, this work must be absolutely the first choice. It is true, of course, that the report of that capable electric engineer, Mr Birks, fixed the City Council’s determination, in favour of Evans Bay. For years it had been a most wavering Council. But, after many waverings, the expert advice was steadily against Evans Bay. The last wavering brought Mr Birks on the scene, and his report was decisive. But was it as wrong as it was decisive? This is a big question for a lay pen to answer. Nevertheless, it may be examined. Exa'ini-’ nation disarms the prestige against the lay pen, disclosing as it does that Mr 1 Birks professed not to decide the ceonomic side of the matter before him.! Therefore, as he did prononrice in a way which has been regarded—though perhaps contrary to his wish—as financially decisive; the fact iB against his conclusion. Seeing that he had not time to go into the costs added by reclamations and other things, this is a strong point against his report: It is also a strong adverse point that he quoted as analogous the case of a Californian installation; but that installation, depending largely on coal, is not analogous for the Wellington system (to be served by the Evans Bay works), which has the advantage, and depends’ for all time on the advantage, of water for the generation of its power. The decisive report of Mr Birks must, for these reasons, he held not to be of decisive character. And this leaves the Evans Bay case with the weight of expert opinion strongly against it. The other reasons against that project, which we have given above, deprived of-the counterweight of the Birks report, seem to us irrefragable. We do not wish to dictate to the Council. Our object is to earnestly point out that certain Teasons we have given, together with the new commercial conditions brought about by the war after this question of Evans Bay was settled, require a reconsideration of that question by the Council. As there is another work requiring first place in. the policy of hustle which is now imperative, and as the money market is too uncertain for that more imperative project to be risked, even the most fanatical supiporter of Evans Bay ought not to see any possibility of harm in the suggestion for the reconsideration of the Evans Bay site. It is a suggestion that a vast sum of money may ho saved, and in these times such a suggestion should not be lightly turned down.