ARAPUNI ACTIVITY

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 78, 11 March 1931, Page 2

ARAPUNI ACTIVITY

RESTORATION MEASURES With remarkable expedition the remedial scheme of works at Arapuni has been opened out, states the "New Zealand Herald." No official infoiv mation is available to the Press, the Minister of Public Works having not yet lifted the order he imposed at the time of the fracture which put the plant out of action. It is possible, however, for newspaper representatives to inspect activities without hindrance, and from previous experience, combined with a knowledge of the Hornell recommendations, to describe with confidence the developments which are absorbing the labour of some 400 men.

The remedial measures embrace 23 separate operations, all of which, except one, were recommended by the Swedish expert, Professor Hornell. The exception is the costly job of concreting the falls to arrest the process of erosion. Upon this question the engineering judge was indecisive, on account of the insufficiency of data at his command. The Public Works Department, however, had already decided that in view of the period over which surplus water must be discharged over the spillway weir the face of the falls would have to be protected, and part of the necessary plant in the shape of a cableway had already been erected. Thus the Hornell scheme proceeds, plus the job of concreting the falls, and at a rate which reflects the highest credit upon the Public Works Department. The Christmas holidays fell before it was possible to open out the work for a full staff. In the six or seven weeks which have elapsed since then the job has gone "full bore" with a full staff, and a very remarkable transformation has been brought about. Much of the work, of course, is buried, and much more is still in its initial stages; but it is clear to any competent observer that the Department is making "speed the essence of the contract." If there arc no industrial complications such as are rumoured because of an unreasonable demand for transferred railway workers to have "married quarters' 'erected for some of them — a claim that is sheer nonsense in view of the amenities of an Arapuni "canvastown" when one compares them with a location in an isolated gorge in the hills —the job should be accomplished in very rapid time, although one would doubt whether the station could start generating again in time for the peak load of the winter of 1932.