HARNESSING THE RIVERS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9101, 20 March 1901, Page 1

HARNESSING THE RIVERS.

Our Gisborne friends, after a long period of somnolency, seem to have awakened to a. vigorous life which Napier might well copy. They are completing their harbor; making good roads, m spife of the difficulty of getting suitable metal, demanding the opening of their back country by railways, and looking seriously to the prospect of harnessing me Keinga falls to supply Eotonly lighting but power available for all purposes, to the town. The Keinga falls are far away, but modern inventions have gone far to minimise the loss of electricity m its transmission over, long distances, and (m expert has reported favorably on the scheme. .What is being done m Southern. India, m 'utilising the celebrated Uanvery falls, should encourage the Gisbornites to go ahead. The falls are due east of Mysore and due south of Bangalore, and the object of harnessing them is to supply power for working the Kolar goidiields, 90 miles distant m a direct line. The falls are about 320 ft high, but for a mile above them there is a succession of rapids, the river dropping about 100 ft m the distance, so that there will be little diffi-^ culty m obtaining ahead of water. The' idea was talked about for many years, but the would-be concessionaires could point to no- opportunity of using the power close to the falls. When the problem of transmitting power over long distances had been satisfactorily solved m America and elsewhere, however, progressive engineers m, Mysore were not disposed to stand still. Tue upshot of their investigations was the formation of a definite scheme to work the Kolar mines by electricity. The Madras Government agreed to give the Mysore Government its rights at the falls for a period of 30 years on liberal terms, the ground was surveyed, preliminary difficulties were settled, and Captain Lothiuiere, deputy chief engineer < of Mysore, set out to Europe and America to consult the great eloutrical firms. TU*-. mines were to take a. minimum of 4000 horse-power for ten years", the total payments for the period being £628,000. The cost of steam power for t«n years would be £1,200.000, and the saving will therefore be more than half a million sterling. Rye- firms were invited to submit tenders for supplying the power to the Kolar mines, and after careful i i? vertigation that of the General Electric Company was accepted, the amounts being

£111,301 for generation and transmission and £53,000 for distribution at the mines. A separate tender of £25,690 was accepted for the hydraulic plant. The total cost, of the works is estimated at £287,300, and the expense of maintenance and other necessary charges is put down at £10,000 a year after the first year.— H.W. Herald. \