VISIT ENDED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27212, 15 October 1949, Page 6

VISIT ENDED

ADVISORY ENGINEER ROXBURGH SITE SURVEYED WORK IN FOREIGN LANDS Staff Reporter ROXBURGH, Oct. 14. His ground survey of the Roxburgh Gorge hydro-electric project completed, the distinguished American engineer, Dr J. L. Savage, who is visiting New Zealand to advise the Government on its hydro-electric plans, left this morning l on his return north. He intended to visit Pukaki and Tekapo and see the work in progress there on his way to the Hermitage, and then go back to Wellington to work on the mass of data which has been prepared for his consideration. ‘ Although Dr Savage’s home is in Denver, he does not manage to see it frequently. After his New Zealand survey is completed, he will go back to Australia for another look at projects in which he has an advisory interest before returning to the United States.

Would he’stay there for some time? "No,” said Dr Savage rather wryly. “I am afraid not. . I may have about three days at home before' I start travelling again.” It would then be time to return to Palestine and India, where he has also been engaged in an advisory capacity. To the thousands of ex-servicemen who visited Palestine during the war, the work in which Dr Savage is engaged there should be of interest. It is, like most such projects, designed to provide both hydro-electric power and irrigation' and involves a canal from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea. It will not, however, interfere with the major industrial works at the head of the Dead Sea.

Although he has not been connected with any of the planning, Dr Savage was aware of the Egyptian schemes which, over a long period, have looked towards the use of the Quattara Depression for irrigation and hydroelectric purposes. The Quattara area was actually the left flank of ,the armies’ stand at Alamein, and is thought to have been connected with the Mediterranean in centuries past. It has been considered that its judicious use in a major scheme could alter the climate on the North African coastal strip and, with irrigation, make it once again the fabled “ granary of Europe.” Plans for the Quattara were still in existence to the best of his knowledge, Dr Savage said, and there seemed no reason why they should not materialise.