THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, May 28, 1947. THE WORTH OF WAIPORI

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26472, 28 May 1947, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, May 28, 1947. THE WORTH OF WAIPORI

In these columns recently there have appeared two articles in which the projected extensions to the Waipori hydro-electric scheme were discussed at some length. In these articles attention was drawn to several factors which have arisen since the original policy of the City Council governing the development of Waipori was formulated, and the suggestion, was made that a careful and expert scrutiny of the whole position should be made before the city was pledged to a financial commitment which in later years it might find occasion to rue. Consequent on the appearance of these articles several letters appeared in our correspondence columns, indicative of the fact that the doubts which prompted the compilation of our articles were shared by other persons in the city. Yet the deduction can be made, from comment at the meeting of the City Council on Monday night, that the council has not given the matter the careful attention it deserves. Waipori, as it stands to-day, is a profitable civic investment: the question that must be answered to the satisfaction of the ratepayers- is whether it will continue as such if the proposed additional power houses are built. The cost of the extensions at Waipori has been estimated at £500,000, and under present-day conditions it would probably be considerably more. The three additional stations would generate no more than 14,000 kilowatts, and it is doubtful whether the time required to complete them would be appreciably shorter than that necessary for the construction of the Coal Creek scheme, a huge undertaking which can be expected to generate power at a considerably cheaper rate than could the Waipori extension. It must be emphasised also that the cost of the Waipori extension must be borne by Dunedin alone, and citizens should not lose sight of the possibility that the city may be faced with the handicap, if the undertaking should prove uneconomic, of electricity rates higher than those prevailing in centres which purchase their total requirements from the State. Another factor in the present uncertainty is the potentiality of atomic energy as a source of power. Great Britain is already planning to make experiments in this direction, and an eminent New Zealand scientist has stated that “ there is no difficulty in principle in constructing an atomic pile that will yield anything from a few watts to perhaps a few hundred thousand kilowatts. The real questions at the present are economic ones and, of course, technical details.” So much of the research into atomic energy is still secret that the only statement that can confidently be made regarding its utilisation for power is that present costs make it prohibitive. Much can happen, however, in the years that would be required to complete the Waipori scheme, and for that reason there is an imperative -need for a review of the project by experts, not necessarily with the object of commending or condemning, but of ensuring that the council and the people will be informed of all the factors and possibilities involved before a final decision is made.