TARIKI HEAD WORKS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1930, Page 8

TARIKI HEAD WORKS

POWER BOARD’S VISIT.

RAISING THE LAKE LEVEL,

A visit of inspection to the headworks at Ratapiko was made on Thursday by members of the Taranaki; Electric Power Board. All .members made the trip with the exception of the chairman, Mr. H. G. Carman, who. is still confined to his home owing to illness, and Mr. C. E. McGuinness, who is away on holiday. Oil the journey a stop was made at the intake at the Tariki Road factory, where it is proposed to lay a' cattle, stop to the entrance to avoid the necessity of drivers having to open gates. There was a good flow of water coming over the weir,.also a considerable volume going down the water-race. These facts were noted with satisfaction by the board and by the engineer, Mr. B. LI. Goldsmith. A small plantation of Lawsonianas was seen to be growing well, but a few of the trees were dying, apparently from some disease. From the intake at the Manganui River to the power house is a distance of about six miles and an inspection was made at various points. The obvious difficulties which have been encountered in the construction of this canal furnish reasons for w’hat has been regarded as the high cost of the scheme. That an artificial channel was ever put down in such country is evidence of a considerable amount of enterprise among the promoters. At several points tunnels had to be constructed to take the water and in one place for several hundred yards the tunnel was taken under a swamp, necessitating very difficult and expensive operations? As the result the swamp was partly drained and the land improved, and in conformity with the original plan it was decided to excavate the tunnel into an open canal. This work has been going on for some time but portions yet remain to be completed. The task has been a heavy ar.d expensive one, the swamp' being a mass of tangled stumps and logs. It is considered that the projection of a tunnel through such obstacles could have been avoided by taking a longer course under more solid, ground, but whether it would have been cheaper in the end. is a matter for conjecture. From this tunnel the water emerges into a large lake of about 105 acres «lield by a dam. The area of the lake was originally 80 acres but by raising the spillway a foot an additional quantity of water was impounded. At present the level of the lake is very high, but the question of securing a still further supply of water to tide over the dry weather has been considered, and the works committee has been empowered to have the spillway raised further. The equipment and machinery used in tunnelling, now stored in a shed and of no further use to the power board, were viewed. This plant consists of a tunnelling machine, air compressor, motor locomotive, trucks and cement gun.

The party subsequently visited the power house, where the water enters the turbines after passing through threequarters of a mile of pipe with a fall of 300 feet from the surge chamber. The power house is a spacious building with a fiat roof from which radiate the power lines to the various sections of the power board’s area. The engineer pointed out the various alterations in circuit which would l be necessary when Clifton is added to the reticulation.

A visit to the headworks reveals to the layman some idea of the large extent of the board’s operations.

KING’S THEATRE PROGRAMME.

PARAMOUNT COMEDY DRAMA.

“The Lady Lies,” starring Walter Kliston and Claudette Colbert, is the story of a prominent and successful lawyer 1 who is a widower, and who, to the disappointment of his two young children and his relatives, falls in love with a woman who is not, in their opinion, of an equal social standing with him. The family powers of intervention are brought to bear, and the plot deals with the weighing in the balance of a true love affair, and a family’s selfish ambitions. After numerous situations, which are shot through with clever dialogue and tense drama, the romance reaches a logical culmination. Huston and Miss Colbert are ideally fitted for a talking picture of this character. Each is a finished actor, a veteran of the Broadway stage. Charles. Ruggles, who furnishes the comedy relief, is another stage favourite.