Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBOBNE, TUESDAY, AUG. 2, 19.0.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12214, 2 August 1910, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBOBNE, TUESDAY, AUG. 2, 19.0.

ELECTRIC POWER. If the people of New Zealand are to bu brought to realise the immense value of the running Mater m their rivers they cannot be told too frequently of developments m hydro-electric generation that are taking. place m other ports of the world, and knowing something of the possibilities that exist m this district m connection with the T*. Rcinga Falls and the outlet from Lake JVaikaremoana- We make no apologies tor frequent reference . to the subject. The last issue of the London Times to hand by mail has a striking article on the' Subject of electric poSyer from Niagara, m the course; of which it asks its reader.' co assume that the whole of the steam power used throughout the numerous manufacturing and other industries m urreat Britain could be concentrated ana ■■ssued from one source of supply. Il t be assumed that from a singlo centra ~r\ breat Britain all the energy needeo by the innumerable manufactures and iniustnes of the Old Land could be sup< jhed, what is m process of accomplishment m the province of Ontario may be understood. Ontario is a region de■icient m coal, and hence severely handidipped as a manufacturing country. Thie disadvantage will be presently overcome by recourse to electrical power generated by the M-aters of Niagara. It was estinr.ted somj years ago, says the Times, -hit. the total amounf, of power generitcd hy steam m Great -Britain was apoximntely 5,000,000 horse-power. Now .In power generated by the fall of watei between LaJce Erie and Ontario is approximately 6,000,000 h,p., or more than efficient,'. if till applied that purpose. ;o, convert Ontario -inta^'an immensfe inhjstnal regioii. In deciding to have recourse to the Falls of "Niagara for this .njrpose the Province of Ontario, far t'rpm making a reckless experiment, wai? but profiting by experience" already gainid on tho American side of the river. It s now not far short of 20 years age that electrical energy was developed at Niagara by the Niagara Falls "Powei Company. The power derived from the first station was 30,000 h.p., but this v s afterwards -largely increased, and »ther plants were constructed by othei -:o;mpame.s on the Canadian as well as 1 m the American side .of the Falls. The consequent rapid development and .prosperity of the communities m the neiphScrhood- of the Falls encouraged the Canadians to attempt; . the distribution ?{ the power over a large part of the orovince, with the object of making it %ire m the benefit of the cheap power, j.v{iich one of.- the Canadian companies had already undertaken m regard to Hamilton and Toronto. A single ex*upple will show how important the lew method of transportation will be to }hp fanner. .In Ontario m the past iiindreds of* tons of grapes have been Seen thrown away or have been sold for lialf a cent per Ib, owing to want of, transportation facilities, at times when ;hn crop has been very heavy. Milk uvl farm produce could not be sold at ill owing to. want of facilities for their -onveyance, when m th e cities there was i -p-reat demand for these commodities. H is hoped, apparently with good reason, h;it the producer and the consumer will low be brought into ( . much closer relaiiins, and that the loss to every one riiccrneel occasioned by tho lack of 'm importation facilities' Avill no longer )o, experienced. It is ' proposed ulti•nately to extend the supply of electrical "lower to individual farms' so that the f avmcr may plant his, fields, pump his Tfttcr, aild d«> his general farm work 'iv energy derived frpm the central 't-tions, the object i'i\ this case being the minimising, ax fay- -as possible, of ivi nun 1 labor on the I. farm m localities vhere such labor m scarce and its cost? >V' ; )hibitiye. Under the Ontario scheme l h? municipalities have decided to purchase the power from the companies al-•c-jdy m existence., which have reduced 'heir 'prices to a reasonable figure, and construct an electrical highway for ihn purpose of transmitting the current Miroujrh the province, each municipality )urnhasinfif as much as it wants and itllisiiur it m its own way. No great 'ngvuecring difficulties were encountered •n. the, carrying out of the plans. The lot-? of power on the ,lines will be very, smill, that at Toronto bein.<j .between live" and ten per cent, according to the ! 'lower used. All the lines are >us-' 'icndeel from steel towers \ placed at a 1 i:onvonieiit distance from ench other and capable of supporting any -probable •.vr ight and strain. The cost of carrying out, this great undertaking was mot by m appropriation voted by the Provincial Legislature, which issued bonds for this purpose. The charges to bo made by the municipalities for the power to he delivered over the lines aro such as (o provide for a heavy sinking fund. Ample allowance is made for the paymojit of interest and for depreciation, and .nil charges are to ho defrayed 'md the bonds redeemed at the end of *Q years. A diagram accompanying the article we have quoted from* shows a perfect network of transmission lines reach in qt all portions of the extensive province, many towns of under 2000 population being supplied. The lines extend for a distance of over 200 miles from Niagara, which fact suggests how I easy it would be for the Waikaremoana scheme to be made to supply practically Ihe whole of the power requirements fnr railways, factories, and lighting m Mio North Island. The power is there, beyond question, running to waste. \t only requires the enterprise and in•renuity of man to bring it into service.

The annual ball .will be* held m the Makarftka and Matawhero Hall on Thursday August. 25. Our Wellington correspondent telegraphed to-day : — Applications for letters patent have been filed by A. R. Renner, of MaUiwhoro, for a" dredge bucket, clean. it, find by A. M. Long, of Gisborne, for a weed destroying composition.

Our Chi'istchurch correspondent telegraphs : —Mr" T. N, Brqdrick, Commissioner of Crown Lands, Canterbury, took up his duties at Christchurch yesterday. The public arq reminded of the annual social m aid of St. Dominic's school, to be held m His Majesty's Theatre next Thqi-aday evening. Given i fine evening, a very large attendance is fully expected, for which every provision has been made. The V.M.C.A. Literary and Debating Society proposes discontinuing its session during the United Mission. This evening a debate will take place on the subject "That the punishment of criminal? is neither just nor expedient." The debate openers will be Messrs Clarksor. laid Gibson (affirmative) and Messrs Bushneil and Cornish (negative). The many friends of Mr W. F. Richardson, sen., will regret to learn .hat his health is m a very critical state. He has been unwell for* some time past, at his residence m , Lytton i'oad, and the illness has now taken a turn for the worse. He is 83£ years of ige, and had shared m the arduous iasks of the pioneers m breaking m oracts of bush country. \ At the Police Court this morning, be fore Mr Barton, S.M., Peter Cahill was charged with drunkenness. His Worship said it was very sad to see a young man of 21 charged with drunkennesF. twice within six months. He advised accused to leave liquor alone m future., and get back to the country. A fine oi £1, costs 2s, m default four days' imprisonment, Was imposed. J ' The meeting of ratepayers m the Arai riding held yesterday was fairly well attended. The object of the meeting was to discuss the Cook County Council's proposed loan. Crs. H. White and T. J,ex-Blake addressed the meeting, and tjie meeting expressed itself favorably to the raising of a loan of £12,000 for that riding, the allocation of the expenditure being left to the- councillors and the County Engineer. _Mr D. J. Nathan, who had been on a visit to Australia, returned to Welling-^ ton. from Sydney last week. He had an opportunity of meeting the Federal Prime Minister, Mr A. Fisher} and from impressions gathered, Mr Nathan is of opinion that Australia will give tho Labor party a fair show. The Commonwealth is enjoying a pei'iod of great prosperity ; money is plentiful at 4 per :ent. on good security any amount it 4£ per cent. Industrially, the visitor found tho Commonwealth going ahead, especially m manufactures. At tho annual meeting of Ih© Masteron Agricultural and Pastoral Association, something sensational m the way jf donations to the funds of the Association is to be announced. One donation isi well over four figures, and will be the biggest ever made to any Association m >3ew Zealand. The names of the donors, a^id everything connected therewith, is. being kept, secret, and is to be sprung as a surprise on members at the annual meeting. There are a number of le«d"iig officials of the Association who intend to leave no atone unturned until the Masterton show becomes the great rival of Canterbury; and s Palmerston North .shows. These donations are only initial steps m this direction. '•. A man with "the flue" rushed into a chemist's shop, says the Duuedin . Star. a\id asked the proprietor (who himself had a touch of the prevailing malady) for a cure. Whilst it was being made ■ip by an assistant, who coughed as \\f bottled the mixture, the chemist remark ed, "You -seem to 1 have it pretty bad.'" "Oh, don't bother about me," was the reply "I want the stuff for my typist. My f ore.nan is m- bed, three of the fac 1 tary hands and all my clerks are off duty, the girl and me have been running the business for three days, and now she's started to sneeze. Please hurry up. or .I'll have to close the place.' And that j represents the position o\ affairs m about half tho establishments m Dunedi:i. What was m its day not only the first gas lamp m Invercargill, but at th< same time- the most southerly m the world, has been removed from its. sits by an unsentimental and unsympathetic Council (saW the News)^, This light dis j tributer" wim 'first lighted with> somt pomp and ceremony m front of the . old Council Chambers (now Allen's Hall) m April, 1876.J Council replaced Council, and eventually the business of the borough was transferred to new office* m. Tay street, but the lamp m question kept 'on diffusing its rays unmindful ol the municipal strife that had eventuated under its serene gaze. Its presence hat cost Mr Allen, of Allen's Hall, the siur of £1 per annum for years past,"i)ut the Council seemed to think that such an historic landmark' was worth at lensi £4 per' annum, and notified Mr Allen accordingly. This he declined to pay., and the unsentimental Council aforesaid removed the structure. So it passed into the obscurity of the scrap heaji after a consistent and faithful service of 34 years, marked with an utter disregard of reward or favor. A fire occurred at Mangapapa at 10.40 last night resulting m "the total destruction of a five-roomed dwelling together with the contents. The house' was owned and occupied by Mr Mark Davis, market gardener, but he and his family are away m Auckland, Mr Davis having left Gisborne on Saturday. A youug man named W. T. Armstrong war left m charge of the garden, but he was not required to go into the' house. When he left the premises at 5.30 everything appeared safe, and at 10 o'clock there was no sign of fire as Col. Winter passed the place about that time. Some young men who were early on the scene* state that the fire had a strong hold when they arrived, and it Mas impossible to Ret anything- out' of the house. The fire appeared to have started m the din. ing-room, but its origin is wrapped m mystery. There were a number of bul let cartridges in 'the house, and the explosions of these, were heard for some .distance round, and were a source of danger to the onlookers. A short alarm was piven on the' fireboll, and several brigadesmen. proceeded to the scene, but they could not do anything to save the building. The house was a fairly old one and had been occupied by Mr D. J. McCliskie for many years* The building wiih insured for £200 m the New Zealand office. Discussing municipal trams with a Timaru 'Herald repi'esentativo, Mr A. G. B'ignell, of Wanganui, said that people have to bo educated up to using trams ; they did not take to them all at; once, but once they got accustomed .to them they, would ,not be without them. In !Whrifianui"".tne'. people would not go back on their tram system for anything; even the., pessimists and those who opposed them most strenuously at the start were now 'in 'favor, of them.' 4> lt is wonderful." Mr .Bignell said, "what a difference they make to a place- they seem to lift it up and place it on a higher plane -straight; away, and quickly raise an ordinary sort of. town to. the status of a city. The running to and fro of crowded cars m the streets imparts an air of Jife and activity which has a good effect all round.'.' The Wanganui trams had become so popular that it is hitendpd to extend the system to double its present length — to ten miles m place of five, the extension running down to the sea beach at pastlecliff. A Tramway Board, of which he was chairman, had been appointed to arrange for the extension, and a Bill , had been obtained from Parliament authorising the work, for which a loan of about £50,000 would be raised. The Wanganui borough, Mr Bignell explained, is a- comparatively small on<2, but it was suri'ounded by populous districts which would, ho doubt soon join the borough proper. The population of the present borough was between 8000 . and 9000, and the tramways only served about ,two-thirds of the borough inhabitants, But by extending the system to include the outer areas, they could be made to serve a population' of 12,000 or 13,000. Napier proposed to instal electric cars, and Gisborne propojggd^Q.. adopt petrol cars. He> thought, niowpver, that the electric. cai-$ were the best. The i-etu;rn& of passengers carried aud of revenue, received by the Wanganui tramways shoM'ed an increase for every month of the year, as compai % ed with the returns for the previous year. They had six cms running. The initial cost of their system was £45,000. ••>

In the final game m the ladies' luindijap tournament, which was played on the golf links yesterday, Miss Sweet (scr) beat Miss Seymour (12) by four up and two to play. Work on the Tauranga-Te Puke railway has been commenced at the junction of the main and branch lines, at a point about three miles from the Maunganui terminus and four miles ■Tom Maungatawa. Work will be pro■eeded with towards the Mount and Maungatawa. Mr R. W. Davis, native tree specialist, N T ew Plymouth, states that there has been a great demand for native trees this year, so much so that he has sold right out. Some were sent to the Wan?anui Beautifying Society, but the big orders came from Palmerston North, which town is doing great work m the way of beautification. The only "mishap," if it may be looked upon as such, at the Hunt Club races (says the Napier Telegraph) was the "blowing out" of a bookmaker. One, of the fraternity found himself m an unfortunate financial position which prevented him paying out on the sixth race, so he decided to return backers their deposits, and this unsatisfactory work was faithfully, carried out whilst surrounded by a very good humored, if dis. appointed "crowd. ' After paying back the deposits the secretary and police took him under their protection, although this was only a matter of form, because the crowd showed no aggressiveness, and passed him quietly through one of the back gates*. Dr. Graham Bell, who invented the telephone, spent about an hour trying to ring up the Premier, and : did not get nun (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph of Thursday last). "He told his .audience at the University about it when he was re. plying to addresses of welcome. Dr. Bell was not harshly criticising the Department; he simply made the remark as supplementing a statement that he did not know much about the telephone m Australia), He added that there were certain features about' the system which he would ,like to investigate. He had come- to Australia to learn, and he wanted to know what 'was being done. He noticed thajb the people of Australia had not yet the telephones m their honies. In Indiana] (U.S.A.) 'eve^jy farmer had due,, and telephone wires were the wire fences,. One could 'hardly ,go into an hotel m the ' United States without finding, a telephone m each bedroom. The system m Australia was very cheap, but if that | cheapness interfered with efficiency, it 'was a bad thing. At present he i_, was not prepared! to say whether the ,_ system was efficient. :He had been invited to_ give evidence before the Royal Commission, though, unfortunate.-' ly, lie had ; not been personally connected with the telephone system Bince 1879. ; The wife of a young Tima.ru benedict is likely to^i'emember the first story poured into "her ears by her husband. *It appears, -says 'the local Post, that the swain, m oraeV to hasten his union with his beloved 1 , announced his wealth at a fictitious figure.*) The . marriage was> arranged, binVthe' awain was. not .happy •. Sooner or. later the truth would have to come out. The' swain planned his own. undoing. Whafi mote, he asked himself, could sound more* fitting than a' tale of a daring burgfary on 'the eve of his weddine, himself a poor man through no fault of his own, the period too lute for the postponement of the wedding, tears, a generous father-in-law, reconciliation, ■md happiness ever after; swallowing up the dreadf ill secret? Thus at an early hour one bleak morning a. few days ago a local detective was balled upon to investigate the alleged tlieft of £165,fr0m the room of the coming; bridegroom^ Th« "sleuth-hound of the law," however* at once had his suspicions turned upon the man who was inviting" him to believe that he had been robbed. One word led to another, and finally thi nuth admitted that he "Had lost no money ; . fchnt he never had £165 to lose, and tb.ut the whole thing was a hoax. But all!s well that ends well, and it is interesting to note that the marriage, despite thia little comedy, duly took place. • ■ ' The Timaru Borough Council^ -as the - result of representations mad© by 1 Mr A. G. Bignell, a director' 1 V>f the 'Wanganui ' Spiral Steel !Pr|>e Company and Mr^WiJ.-. McCren, of the Crown Ironworks,' Chris- j church, has decided to rescind a resolution it had previously passed m favor of east iron pipes for the extension of the Timaru waterworks and to invite prices for steel as well as iron pipes. In the rr.urse of an interview with the sTimaru Herald, Mr Bignell, after referring- to the fact that- the steel pipes were now beihg used extensively throughout the North • Island said there had only been oneplace where there had been any trouble, , •aid this was at Gisborne, when his com ? pany undertook the construction work, as well as to supply the pipes; and the< trouble had been over tho former; the quality or suitability of the .pipes had never been called m question. The water had to be brought fromt/the Te Arai . river into Gisbornef> a distance' of 22 miles and it was owing to the unreliable, nature of. th£ country through M'hich tlie pipes we^e. laid, tnat all the, trouble had been caused. jror;the first six miles the pipes were laid along the bed of a creek, and m that distance they had to cross a mountain torrent 58 times. There was a shingle bottom with papa sides, and when a flood came the pipes were displaced. . The company, had, re; placed them the first time at its own expense,, , but whs", wasjiouts occurred, a second tfrno ' tliroucth'a ' flood j "'it w ; aa ! plainly demonstrated 1 that ithe. 'creek bot:\ tomnr.a.s no. place to lay the pipes, and the, .Council, --was . now. doing what it should h,"iv.e done 4in the first , place t»^K nuttliig th^*pipe% m sblfd'groiind on'ffifhillside,, bed «of ithe ■ cr*ek )iad Iteerf' chqpen in'Hhe first instance tor tine' siflk* of economy, but it had proved false economy. ! . t .