ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHEME.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9098, 16 March 1901, Page 4

ELECTRIC LIGHT SCHEME.

TE REINGA SOURCE,

The first practical step has been taken towards providing Gisborne with- electric light and power, and Air Steuart's full report, expected within a month, will doubtless settle the question of the possibilities of the Te Reinga source. The wisdom of the step taicen none can gainsay, as the firm from whom the report is being obtained possess high credentials, and their standing is further strengthened by the hard test of practical competition with leading firms m their own line. In open competition they have beaten old-estaDlished firms, and have now some large contracts of a public nature approaching completion. Their being not only engineers, but contractors also, is an additional guarantee of the accuracy of their figures, and also ensures the greatest care m the compilation of their report.. Therefore, that report will be awaited with much interest, and may be further accepted as a reliable guide. Air Steuart, of the firm, visited Te Reinga yesterday morning. Arriving from Auckland on Thursday morning, he left at 9.30, under Air Redstone's skilled care, for Tiniioto. The roads were awful. Mud made the going very heavy all the way, and by evening the wellkept team had had about enough; and it rained m torrents. Yesterday morning's fall was particularly heavy. But that did not prevent Air Steuart being on the road at 7 o'clock, en route for the falls. In consequence of the rain, the fall was abnormally large, and presented a magnificent spectacle as it dashed over its 40ft leap. During his lengthy experience of such matters Mr Steuaat says he has seen nothing so fine, and the possibilities of such a fall as a generator of electricity impressed him wonderfully. Mr Redstone informed him that for tie normal state of the fall an allowance of half the body of water they saw would be about correct. This Air Steuart considered, would give ample power for all the necessities of Gisborne, whether for power or lighting. An offhand estimate of the requirements of the place was 400 gallons, and this All' Steuart is firmly convinced there would be no difficulty m obtaining. In conversation with our representative, Air Steuart said that the system to be followed for obtaining the requisite force would be to divert a portion of the stream, leading it down the face of the cliff by a channel m the solid rock to a distance of 120 ft. At thei bottom of the fall the stream would be confined within a piled and trustled channel so as ...to keep the wa^er ata permanent aiid steady level. The shoot would lead on to a turbine, which would connect with a dynamo generating an alternating • current. To bring the conduct wire to town m a bee-line would be difficult and dangerous, owing to the ireegulax nature of the formation, and consequently a more circnitous route would have to be adopted. That condition, the price of wire, and a hundred and one other items, will have .to be taken into account m framing an accurate estimate of the cost of an instillation, and before a definite route could be selected, or any work' undertaken at all, a detailed survey would need to be made. But engineering difficulties m the strict sense of the term Air Steuart considers ,there are none, and his report will be full enough (and sufficiently accurate, owing to the possibility of the firm contracting for the work) to .guide the public reliably as to whether they shouldproceed with the installation of the system. In view, of the possibility of adopting a water supply scheme, he holds that- this poVer would be invaluable to any m which pumping operations were necessitated. Regarding the scheme, All- Steuart stated most emphatically his complete confidence m the practicability of the scheme, and held as well that the town is well suited m its compact arrangement to an installation of the kind suggested. The crux of the question is expense. What will the scheme oust! Air Steuart was not prepared offhand to say. Could he give a rough and ready, and admittedly merely approximate, , estimate? "Well, no," he replied. "I would mucn rather say nothing about that. You see," he continued, "so much depends on calculations based on the different conditions. To prepare an estimate will take eight or nine hours' figuring. Material and its cost might make a vast difference even from one week to another, and a giiess estimate formed now would be sociable to oe upset, or even absolutely belied, by subsequent figuring that it would not be worth anything. On these grounds, it would be better not tb say anything about thab at this stage." One thing tliat Mr Steuart is convinced of : the power supplied m the manner indicated would be able to compete satisfactorily .with any other source of light or power at present m vogue here. Mr Steuart left by the Elingamite this morning for Auckland.