The Daily News FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1930. THE ARAPUNI REPORT.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1930, Page 6

The Daily News FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1930. THE ARAPUNI REPORT.

The report of Professor P. G. Hornell, whose eminence in his e profession is undoubted, on the f< Arapuni hydro-electric under- a taking is by far the most sat- [’ isfactory document the present e . Government has had to present <s to the people of the Dominion since it took office. For four months the gravest anxiety has [ been felt concerning this greatest e of the country’s power schemes; 6 the pessimists at any rate' have been expecting to learn that n works which cost more than three t and a half millions sterling would a never function again. Professor !’ Horrell has swept away all f doubts with his authoritative de- ;1] claration that the Arapuni scheme 0 is scientifically sound and can be a put into operation again at a cost of perhaps half a million. With t what feeling of relief the Govern- t ment and the responsible officers t of the Public Works Department ° must have received the report it £ is easy to imagine,-and the conn- v try may well share their gratification. The stoppage at Arapuni last June; certainly suggested the sensational failure of perhaps the most picturesque and j complex engineering' experiment r ever undertaken in New Zealand.. d A fissure suddenly developed in ® the ground near the power e station, . apparently threatening y the safety of the power house and f its adjuncts and the dam and a race by means of which the t supply of water from the great- c river was controlled. The Public <1 Works Department’s engineers d promptly took the wise course of recommending the- Government to t close the works and divert the f huge stream from the race to its * old bed. What had occurred was | generally attributed to two Sl causes—the giving way of the t ground above the power station v under the pressure exerted by the ° body of water held in restraint, 0 and the -disintegration of this t ground through the vibration set & up by the enormous turbines in 12 the power station. Though official opinion was silent, laymen jj did-not hesitate to put forward el such suggestions, reinforcing 1 them with assertions regarding the effects of recent extensions of n the plant. Professor Hornell com- h pletely disposes of the jeremiads d of the amateur engineers. He J says definitely. that there is no b fault to be found with the site in v itself, that the operation of the s works does not menace J the stability of the country bn which they u stand, and that the scheme can f< safely be the maxi- h mum magnitude originally intended. This verdict, coming c ' from such a source, is a most j £ pleasing testimony to the t efficiency of the Dominion’s . en- 11 gineering. Those responsible for ° the construction of the works c . took a risk—a justifiable risk, ii Professor Hornell says—in not b lining portions of the race carry- a ing the water to the headivbrks, and it was, no doubt, for reasons t, o z f finance that the g risk was taken, t; What is needed now, according to ?- the authority, is to remedy that deficiency'. The main dam' must t, be made entirely waterproof, the s: sides of 1 the headrace should be ® reinforced, and the spillway channel- possibly should be pro- S 1 teeted against erosion. Professor d Hornell is quite clear on the point.

that the cause of the trouble has been the leakage of water from the dam and the. race, and in some degree erosion of the spillway channel. If the dam and the race are repaired, lie says, the plant can be put into operation, and when all the proposed units (ire installed, and the scheme is using far more water than it has done hitherto, the protection of the spillway channel may be found to be unnecessary. The estimates prepared by the departmental engineers on the basis of the report place the cost of 'the first essential work at about £360,000, which would mean the addition of 10 per cent, to the original cost of the undertaking. It is pretty safe to say that when the Arapuni scheme was adopted the Government and the country would not have scrupled to spend another half million on it. Today there is less reason than there was then to allow considerations of cost to stand in its way, for it should be cheaper to make the additional outlay than to throw into the river the capital already represented by the works. The Public Works Statement a fortnight ago showed that Arapuni was able to earn 6.15 per cent., on capital, which meant interest on the loan money involved and something over for depreciation. The departmental estimates attached to the Public Works Statement indicated that if the capacity of the plant were extended from the present 45,000 kilowatts to 60,000 kilowatts (half the projected maximum) and the repairs now required cost as much as £890,000, Arapuni by 1936 would return 8.2 per cent., which would cover interest, 1 per cent, sinking fund and 2 per cent, renewal fund. Since the repairs will cost far less, it looks as if immediate action is desirable on the grounds of finance. So far as the engineering aspect of the undertaking goes the Government naturally must accept the advice of the expert it has employed.

MORALITY IN NEW ZEALAND. Apparently in a book dealing with education in New Zealand a writer has seen lit to east aspersions upon the morality of the young women of the Dominion. The remarks published drew from many public men heated protests against the imputations made by the author—protests which the whole Dominion will heartily support. The less said about such unsavoury matters the better lest writings that are better forgotten receive a publicity to which they are not entitled. Ihe proof of the efficacy of any education system is found in the class of citizen it evolves, and in this respect New Zealand compares more than favourably with countries in' which educational, efforts have existed for centuries. Even from the somewhat low standard of ciiminal statistics the education system of the Dominion will bear comparison with that of other lands, including Great Britain and the United States. It is easy to make startling and hysteiical etatemehts; much easier, in fact, than to show by patient effort where improvements in teaching can be brought about. No one claims that the education system in New Zealand is perfect, and the number of self-appointed experts on the subject during late years is almost astounding. But whatever its failings, the system has turned out men and women who in any emergency %f peace or war, in athletics, in pioneering settlement and in the more intricate problems of the complex city life and trading of to-dav have shown themselves courageous, TOiest, cleanthinking and clear-thinking members of the British race. There is a good deal of soundness in an education that can give such results, eyen though its limitations may be apparent enough to prevent undue complacency. -