DEVELOPING ARAPUNI.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 15748, 13 February 1922, Page 6

DEVELOPING ARAPUNI.

ENGLISH FIRM’S OFFER. VISITING ENGINEER’S VIEW. TARANAKI IRONSAND. Some observations regarding the Arapiuii hydro-electric scheme were made by Mr Percy Scott Leggatt, principal of Thomas Summerson and Sons, Ltd., engineers, Darlington, England, who is on a visit to New Zealand. When lie was in the Dominion in 1920, Mr Leggatt stated, ho made a formal offer to construct and hand over Arapuni as a going concern to the Government, but a full discussion of his offer never took place. His original estimate was that the work would take about four years, and would cost £1,500,000, but these figures were subject to . closer examination by experts who were advising him. He was very sorry to learn that Arapuni was to remain in abeyance, for he had hoped to find this potential source of energy much more advanced, as it would undoubtedly supply Auckland with cheap power. The fact that it had been formally decided to discontinue work on it ended his interest in any possible development. Arapuni would be a splendid source of power for Taranaki, said Mr Leggatt', but he rather thought transmission losses over the large stretches of unoccupied country would be very heavy, in which case the advantages of cheap generation would be outweighed. In respect to his own requirements for electrical energy at New Plymouth for smelting and refining operations in connection , with ironsands, he was afraid his only hope of supply depended on local enterprise and co-operation. If the local bodies would see the great advantages attending the institution and continuation of an iron industry at New Plymouth he thought lie should be‘able to put the case to them quite simply, whereby they would realise that every effort should bo made to make use of existent hydro-electric power sources. Mr Leggatt will make arrangements for the immediate erection of a plant to handle titanifei’ous magnetites by the electric smelting method, which was made a commercial success about two years ago in England. By this method the iron snnds of New Zealand have been successfully turned into ,pig iron, and then into finished high-grade steel.