COMPENSATION CLAIMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 March 1926, Page 3

COMPENSATION CLAIMS.

ACTION'S AGAINST COUNCIL. EVIDENCE IFOR DEFENCE. The hearing of the case for the defence in the actions brought against the New Plymouth Borough Council by Leonard A. Marsh and Richard O’Byrne, farmers of Mangorei, for •compensation for loss occasioned by the diversion of the Waiwakaiho River through the hy-dro-electric works at Mangorei, was continued. before the Compensation Court at New Plymouth yesterday. The court has Mr. Justice Reed as president and Messrs E. Maxwell and J. Gibbs as assessors. Mr. C. 11. Croker represents the claimants and Mr. R. H. Quilliam the respondent council. The hearing will be continued £tt ten o’clock this morning.

'Continuing in cross-examination by Mr. Croker, R. H. Bartley, late electrical engineer to the borough of New Plymouth, and now general manager and engineer to the Auckland Power Board, said -the borough had always taken all the water it could get from the Waiwakaiho. There was no difference between 1917, 1922 and the present day with regard to the amount of water taken. The witness said that over 24 •hours 1500 gallons of water were required to produce one unit of electricity iti the New Plymouth works. On the figures quoted by counsel concerning the quantity of electricity generated it would appear that the borough was fising nine and a half times as much water over a month a« it was ten years ago, viz., in 1916. The witness considered that the intake at Price’s property was taking the same quantity of water as the borough had taken before. In January and February, 1918 and 1919, he had seen the dam dry. If the figures he had produced were correct the spillway could not have been dry. He had no knowledge of any sum having been set aside to meet the claims.

Re-examined by (Mr. Quilliam, the witness said that if the council had been taking only one-third of the water at No. 2 intake. No. 3 intake would not have been thought of. The figures put in indicated the actual consumption of water on the days mentioned. William Henry Cook, engineer to the borough of Mt. Albert, and formerly New Plymouth borough engineer, stated that the condition of the Mangamahoe dam and the river when he had seen it last week was almost identical with what it had been during the dry periods of the past five or six years. As borough engineer he had ‘been concerned as to the supply of water during the dry seasons and it had often happened that the electricity department had drawn off too much. This 'had left the town water supply short. The borough had been taking all the water from the

river. Had it not been desired to take all the water available from the river the dams across the river would not have been constructed. There was nothing to stop stock crossing the river opposite Neilson’s property. Water would not stop stock, provided, of course, there was not a flood. To Mr. Croker, the witness said he had heard the day before the amount of power that was being generated and he had calculated from that that the borough was using just about the same quantity of water to-day as it was using in 1922. The calculation would be correct within two or three per cent. He would be surprised to hear that one and a-half times as much water was being used. He had reported the shortage of water on many occasions, byt not always. Everybody knew there was a shortage of water. If there was a shortage of water in the forebay exposing the town water supply pipe, there must also have been a shortage In the Mangamahoe dam. Any water not been required during periods when the river was flowing high was turned into the Mangamahoe over the spillway of the dam.