The New Zealand Times SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1925. THE FIRST WORLD POWER CONFERENCE

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12181, 4 July 1925, Page 4

The New Zealand Times SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1925. THE FIRST WORLD POWER CONFERENCE

Power is the new factor in national economy. Ibe newest form of power is electricity. How the new power is dwarfing for the economic world all problems of transport and labour has long been suspected by the thinkers of the world. It has not been treated academically. On the contrary, a few years ago an investigation, scientific and practical, was undertaken. A conference of statesmen and engineers began it, set to work systematically with well-regulated vigour, and the result is an elaborate, detailed census of all the power in Nature’s resources, and of the progress made in the utilisation of the electric power thus available. The “Transactions” recently published of the World Power Conference, in four bulky volumes, make a most interesting and most suggestive record. The publication is opportune, for it synchronises with the “Dawes” plan and the progress of the League of Nations. These latter are concerned with tne harmonising of the various economical interests of the world. And while the world is studying these interests by the light of the old economic factors, the published “Transactions” of the World Power Conference have given prominence, with intimate practical detail, to the new power, which promises to become by far the greatest economic factor—the factor more likely than 1 any other to revolutionise the international economical relations of the States of the world. These “Transactions” show everything the world wants to know about the new power—both what has been done with it, with the continuation of the work, and what may be done with it. The record is in treaties, plans, specifications, illustrations. It has been put together in papers by the best engineers in the world and in essays by men who have made records for clear foresight and mature understanding, in statesmanship and commerce. Thus is proved the importance of the new motive force, in the economy of every modern State, and, at the same time, the rapidity, scientifically and practically measured, of its advance over all other types of energy. x In what has already been done lies, as is shown, the germ of possibilities that to the old school that did not put that power in the forefront of its ideas on international economy,' must seem astounding. The essence of the demonstration is that the advance made is gathering momentum so greatly as to threaten the entire structure of industrial civilisation. To mention a few instances of present results: —The increased capacity given by the new power in France and Belgium in the devastated areas in the industrial equipment of mines, iron and steel works, and chemical factories is a revelation; so is the reasoned survey, with detailed plans by an eminent engineer of the present position, of Lenin’s conception of the electrification of Russia as a plain, sober reality, justified economically and technically; so is the scrapping, through the use of electric power, of the old belief in the backwardness of Italian and Spanish industry for lack of coal; so is the supply at every hour of the day of power to Southern Germany m great abundance from the great Bavarian Lake Walchensee. The survey in these volumes includes the United States, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, Russia, the Central European States, the Dominions and important countries of Asia, Africa, and South America. The achievement is not equal in 'all these countries. The highest level has been reached in the United States, 1 Switzerland, Canada,. Norway, Sweden, and France; these are the foremost, who have gone far. Britain, Germany, Spain, and the Dominions are seen to be in the background. In the case of the Dominions, exception is made for Canada and New Zealand. This really assured us that New Zealand is in the front rank, and has nothing to fear in the coming competition. Its is well to remember, also, that what has been said in these “Transactions” about Germany and Spain, as we have quoted, is largely theoretic. We realise, 'then, that France and Belgium—our friends—have got in first, with ourselves, in the, exploitation of the new power. \ The “Transactions” warn us that the world’s economies may be revolutionised electrically; and that in the revolution Old New Zealand, thanks to the clear-sightedness of Sir Joseph Ward and the Government of which Mr Roderick McKenzie was Public Works Minister, will not be- far behind as a collector of benefits.