WAIPORI ELECTRIC SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15824, 24 July 1913, Page 4

WAIPORI ELECTRIC SERVICE

COST OF THE THIRD UNIT.

ENGINEER'S ESTIMATES CRITICISED.

At th© meeting of the City Council last night the debate on the remit from- the town clerk covering the operations of the Electric Power and Lighting Committee at Waipori, and' also the cost oi the third unit was continued. The chairman of tbo committee (Gv Marlow) had, at the last meeting of the council, traversed the position of the department in relation to ite affairs at Waipori, and those councillors who desired to speak on tho subject were given an opportunity last night. Cr Cole, who had moved tho adjournment at the previous meeting, stated that he believed that when councillors had re-

ccivod the report they must have stood aghast to see the amount of money that had been expended on Waipori. He did not siy that! tho money had been injudiciously, but tho amount was surprising. One had only to look at the approximate estimates of the elcctrica] engineer and the

actual costs to see what! the expenditure had run into. It seemed to him absurd and dangerous that public bodies could be guilty of allowing that sort of thing to go on The whole thing from tho very commencement had been misleading, and' he did-not suppose that anyone but the chairman fully understood tho position. The engineer's estimate for a third' unit made in December, 1910, was £53,050, but tho council had authorised an outside expenditure of £60,000. Then there were the Diesel engines for tho converter station in Cumberland street, which cost another £15,000, thus bringing up tho cost to £75,000. Tho difference between the price and the approximate ooet had been £22,072. It! wae a po6itivo proof from tho reports that the system of carrying out work by day labour was not a good thing ior tho council or tho citizens, livery work tiiat had recently been earned out "by day labour—with the exception of tho St. Clair esplanade—hid cost anything from 50 to 75 per cent, more than the approximate estimate. If tho council went on in that way ho did not know where it would get to. He objected to being led astray in the way they had j been, and .in all tno works at Waipori it had been tho same. There was the weir,

and in the caso of tho road' it would cost in tho end nearly doublo the original estimate. At the present time halt the indebtedness oi tne city was upon Waipori. A groat deal of work had been done, upon tho we:r, and he had no faith in much of it. Everyone knew that a man who had been trained as an electrical engineer could not bo expected to carry out works liko three wens. The weir was 66ft in height, and. it required' a thoroughly competent civil engineer to be ablo to properly control a work like that. If a big fiood occurred ho believed the weirs, the powerhouse, and the machinery would be swept away. That sort of work shoud be done by contract, and specifications drawn up by a competent; man. Ho did not say the electrical engineering portion should be done by contract, but the other parte should, and what was required in this city was a thoroughly competent! civil engineer—a man who could carry out such works at those weirs, and who eould do asphalting and the Whole work of the city. They iiad been deficient in that respect for a number of yeara, and it was very unfortunate that that had been the case. ■ They had made mistakes in tho past, and it was now their duty to remedy tho evils arising from those mistakes. He was confident that theeo trading concerns wero to tho great detriment of the city. He knew Cr Marlow had taken a very deep interest: in the electric power and lighting business, and he (the speaker) had no doubt that C'r Marlow honestly thought everything was all right. Cr Marlow must

business, and he (the speaker) had no doubt that C'r Marlow honestly thought everything was all right. Cr Marlow must agree with him, lwwever, that it was not wise to put oil their eggs into one basket. If the weir gave way, everything would go. He did not say that the weir was going to give way, but there was a possibility. A lot of money had, ho considered, been expended in the weirs which should have been saved. He thought the electrical engineer oftentimes did not know where lie was. Ho agreed that the engineer was a good man, with plenty of go in him, biit rather too much in spending money. Cr Menzies said one point had occurred' to him when he had received the report, and he would like to go back and mention that the council had been promised a good many months ago that it was to reeoivo a Complete statement showing the exact financial position of Waipori. They had been to!d that the report was practically under way, and would be submitted to tho council. That report was evidently in the hands of the committee, and it was evidently intended that it should be submitted to the council, But for some reason it had not -been submitted, and councillors were entitled to some explanation as to why it bad not been submitted. Another matter that had occurred to him was that they had a practical man and they looked to that practical man to give them information, not only as to what a work was to cost but what work was required to carry out' the purpose in view. Estimates had been provided, and a statement by the town clerk showed they had been exceeded, and how they come to be exceeded, but that should come from tho man making the estimates. Tho electrical engineer was responsible to the council for tho work in his department. lie' (C'r Menzies) did not agree with Cr Cole's idea as to the bursting of tho weir. There were one or two items that he thought tho chairman should take into consideration. The loans of the tramways and electrio power and lighting departments expired on tho samo date, and the electric ixwcr and lighting deportment was only called upon to pay j per cent, and the tramways department was paying 1 per cent, as a sinking fund. That was n considerable difference. In addition tho depreciation allowed on Waipori was not such as was allowed in the other departments. That should not bo so, and in the case of Waipori there were go many dead assets that they had disappeared altogether, It would bo interesting to get Mr Stark's estimates to see tho cost- given and the actual cost of the work that had been completed under his supervision. If tho tramways department was allowed to generate its own power it would be cheaper for it, but it would lw a bad job for tho electrical department. He thought tho Electrical Committee or the Finance Committee should say what was a fair depreciation and whether only £ per cent, should bo charged against the one department and 1 per cent, charged against the other. He could not see how the electrical depaJtment was going to pay in tho near future as indicated in tho report, and he contended that they should base their calculations upon the power they could sell and not upon what tliev could supply. Ho thought the time had come when they should place this department upon the same footing as tho other departments. Cr Hayward said he was a member of the Electric Power and Lighting, Committee. The committee, lie might say, was doing its level best to arrive at a definite cost in making up its estimates. Ho personally did not agree that, from an electrical engineer's point of view, the engineer was the man to carry out tho Berwick road. With regard to the sale of _ electric light ho had drawn up figures which showed that there were something like 3000 houses waiting to use that light. Taking 3000 houses at an estimate of £s per month the total would come to £9000 per annum. Not a third of the electric light available so far was being utilised.

Cr .Sullivan saicl he was very pleased to sco that the town clerk was at "last allowing the council to know the happy—or urilmppy -position in which it was so fnr as capital expenditure on the W&ipori scheme was concerned. f{e thought it was time to cry a halt in any further capital expenditure. 1-Ie would like to point out that, firetlv, it seemed to him that in nearly every instance the estimate of cost had been greatly exceeded—(Hear, hour) —secondly, that it was very desirable to wait to see the estimated profits come to band ao a tangible result—(Hear, hear.) In the 1910 renort of fhc engineer it was stated that the third unit would in all probability • return a profit of £9000 to £12,000 per annum They would, therefore, bo well advised to await that tangible result before going on with any .further installation at Waipori. The present report, drawn up by the town clerk, said that the total cost of the third unit would lie about £108,000, which exceeded the estimate of the engineer b.v, roughly, oO per cent. The town clerk's present remit included, the speaker admitted, many items which were not in the original schedule, but he maintained tint tliwe should have been foreseen by Ihe engineer.—(Hear, hear.) The engineer bad had the experience derived from the instiiHntion of the first, and second units, and his estimate for Ihe third unit should, therefore, have been very much closer. Where the estimates iiad been exceeded by such a large extent Win .engineer could not expect to have the confidence of tlio council in conducting any work to come forward at Waipori. Thcis were several items in the original estimate which bad never been considered, such as raising tho dam and the weir, elc, These bad all been left out, of the estimate—or had been added to it since. The need of tho conduit to the tunnel should have been foreseen, and also tho lower conduit from tho month of tho tunnel, and tho cost allowed for. These were apparently not allowed for, judging by tho figures pro-

sented. Referring to tho £8000 in the items of expenditure allowed for increased water supply at Waipori, the speaker said none of thi3 amount had been expended, unices it had been expended in some other direction. The town clerk lmd also told them in the latest report that in the third pipe lino another • amount of £12,000 would bo required for certain works, but for which 110 provision was made in the original estimate. The third installation still required to be completed, and the estimated requirement for other capital expenditure in progress was somewhere about £35,000, but in view of the fact that the engineer's previous estimates had been exceeded by 50 per cent., it was reasonable for the council to doubt whether the other estimates required to complete the triplication would not poraibly be exceeded by 50 per cent. also. The engineer's figures for the completion of the triplication should bo taken with a good deal of salt. In connection with the stand-by plant, this had cost up to the present £2200, and when it was completed at a total cost of £19,000 it would have a capacity of 1250 Ji.p, He submitted that if a plant of 1250 li.p. could bo erccted for some £21,000 any further power that was required should be obtained by tho same means. They would get 2000 li.p. from the third unit, now being installed, at. an estimated cost of £103,000, but on a proportional basis they would get the fame horse-nower from Diesel engines for somewhere in the vicinity of £40,000.' i

Cr Hayward: But there is the question of oil for fuel purposes! Cr Sullivan: 'lhe odd £60,000 would buy a great deal of oil. Continuing he expressed his regret that the estimates had been so largely exceeded, and if further authorisations for capital expenditure were asked for they should be carefully gone into and fuller details supplied. As things were at. present they would bo getting 6000 li.p. at a co6t of £473,000, and ho believed Mr Stark's original estimato had _ been £106,000 for bringing power to tho vicinity of Duneclin. Cr Black suggested tlmtj if tho council thought fit an expert should bo procured from somewhere, and asked to go through their stock at Waipori and tell them what it was worth, and what it waa likely to cost them. At present all they had to go upon were the reports in the paper, statements from their Chairman, and odd estimates from their engineer that often very wide of tho mark. Their position in respect of Waipori should be put on a business footing, and he would suggested that the cost of the power should be increased slightly if tho initial means of obtaining it oould be decreased.

Cr Marlow, in replying, thanked the members of the council for their candid criticism and for a certain degree of kindliness in making it. As most comicilloM knew, lie had not been connected with the department for a. great many years. He had had two years of it. lie regretted very much that Cr Colo should have made the statement M had with regard to the weir, as it was as safe as human forethought and ingenuity could mako it. It had reinforced concrete, and lie was assured by Government engineers that every requirement of the Government hud been complied with. • They assured him all that would happen in case of an accident, or a visitation such as an earthquake, would be a crack in the woir, and there was no human possibility of anything giving way. Cr Cole had gone further, and referred to what might happen in time of flood The weir would not cariy one pound more weight in the highest flood, as it had only to carry a full body of water at any time. Then Cr Colo should know why the estimates had been exceeded, and in this connection tho sneaker pointed out that thev bad not been able to get the water they anticipated, and had liad to get it ..elsewhere, and consequently the plans had had to be altered. They had to get the water from somewhere. As to tho financial report referred to by Cr-Menzice, he'(Or Marlow) admitted that he had cause for complaint. But thecommittee had been very anxious over the matter, and in order to get correct and reliablo information bad f-pent weeks in going over flhe figures. That was how tho report had been delayed. Tho data had been obtained from tho engineer, though Cr Menzies had complained tliat they had no figures from tho engineer. The engineer had supplied a report, or minute, andi from this Cr Marlow quoted. Mr Staa-k, as engineer for tho Waipori Company, had stated that to bring electricity within tho vicinity of Dunedin would cost £106,000, and when pressed to bo more definite had mentioned Halfway Bush. But there was also tho reticulation of tho city, and there was also work to be done for the tramways department, and in the suburbs. Tho amount which the tramways department had to pay for electrical energy was not excessive. The council -had in the electric power and lighting department a business that was steadily increasing and improving, and'_ had now entered upon a profit-earning period. Authority would havo to bo asked to borrow another £75.000, in addition to the £75,000 already autlrorised. In tho allocation for the third unit, however, there was provision mado for further extensions, From the expenditure of £470,000 tho council would have got not only 6000 h.p., but allowance would also be. made for other additions. The speaker explained how. by deviating tho road line at Berwick, tho department had saved £2000, and concluded by stating that it would be a mistake to bring in an expert, as suggested by Cr Black, when any councillor could seo for himself what was being and had been done. Tho Mayor remarked that there was no motion before tho council, and tlio discussion then ended, and tho council adjourned.