GREATER WAIKAREMOANA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17156, 5 October 1926, Page 12

GREATER WAIKAREMOANA

DEVELOPMENT OF SCHEME AT THE POWER HOUSE SITE THE LINE TO GISBORNE v'Specia! to the Herald.) WAIROA, this day. Splendid progress is now being made nth the development of the greater Vaikaremoana scheme, and all stages of he work are proceeding smoothly. The ixcavation work at the new power louse site is steadily proceeding, and here are now over 200 men employed tt the works. Within the next few! nonths the maximum number of men. •equired in the works will be employed, t being anticipated that over 300 hands rill be working there. Under the major scheme, the Wai-:are-Taheke river will be dammed in ,uch a way as to allow it to How into ;&kc Kaitawa, when the outlet from hat lake is* insufficient to give all tho lower rerjuirements. A PERFECT SYSTEM. Nowhere in New Zealand is there, iountry that so naturally lends itself o hydro-electrical development as does iVaikaremoana, and the power possibilities are almost boundless. At the >resent time the power house draws its lead of water from Lake Kaitawa, and n the major scheme the outlet from this ake will also he utilised. Sufficient ■vater will be harnessed 1 to providelO.OCO horse power, but should it ever', >e desirable to extend the scheme still iurther it will be possible to obtain alnost unlimited power through a system )f utilising the same water again. The. •eight of Lake Waikaremoana alono nakes this possible, for the same water •ould be used to supply three different powerhouses, one .situated at >£<ake Kai,awa and drawing its water direct from' he lake, another situated at the present site, and a third! situated close on 1 hree miles below the site of the pre-' sent power house. NEW PIPE LINK. . The.'work" of laying the new pipe line :rom Lake Kaitawa to the new power muse site is already under way, and by ;he time the power house is completed jvei'ything will be in readiness to turn m the water supply and generate. The power house itself will be situated' mly a short distance from the site of :he present, power house, and already he greater part of the excavation work lias been completed. Materials are arriving every day, and during the sumuer months the road will be dotted with motor-lorries taking the hundreds of ions of material to the site of the work. COMFORTABLE COTTAGES. Every provision for the comfort of the workmen on the job is being made, and already there are long rows of well-built huts, each of which is electrically lit. The engineering staff is accommodated in cottages equally as well-equipped as the average town house, and the fact that they are electrically el quipped adds greatly to the comfort of tho residents. At the present time there are about 200 workmen at the site, but during the summer there will be nearer 300 at work, and further cottages will be needed to accommodate these men. The timber for these cottages andl. for tho whole of the work required l at the. power houso is being cut at the present time at a mill a. few miles from the site. Some, difficulty is being experienced in hauling the logs to this mill, and a new' hauling rope weighing over a ,'tori was aboard Mr. Tapper's lorry when it fell into the Wairoa river fast Thursday. This has since been recovered and will be installed in the near future. UNLIMITED POWER. Even to the layman the fact that unlimited' power is available in the Waikaremoana district is readily apparent, find the future, development will depend entirely on the demand that exists for power. At Lake Kaitawa there is now a. regular township and more men will shortly be employed there in preparing the dam that will allow the waters of the Waikare-Taheke to be utilised in the major development scheme. This will \nclude a. great deal of concrete work, and the cartage of the materials' from Wairoa to the site of the work will bo no small contract. The roadl is now metalled to this point, however, and new bridges have been erected en route, so that tho heaviest of the gear can he landed where required. NEW POWER LINE. The survey of the power line that will bring the power to Gisborne has now been completed, and it will not be long before a start is made with the erection of the main transmission lines. The line will pass through Whakanaire and go thence* to the' head of the Ruakituri river, then travel across fo Tiniroto and Ilangaroa, going from there to Ngatapa and along the flat to Patutuhi, where power will be delivered to the Poverty Bay Power Board. 'Die line Mill go across 'country from the power house until it strikes the road near Tiniroto, and from there onwards.it will, in the main, follow the road. Apparently it will follow the line that has always been suggested for the inland railway, and the fact that it is running parallel to the road for a considerable distance should make its maintenance a comparatively easy matter. The work is now at an extremely interesting stage, and the progress during the next few months will be such as to show direct results. The erection of the power house itself and the commencement of the dam at Lake Kaitawa will both be undertaken during that time, and it will then be possible to get a very good idea of the effect of the scheme as a whole.