ARAPUNI PROGRESS

Taranaki Daily News, 12 January 1932, Page 3

ARAPUNI PROGRESS

WORK OF RESTORATION. CONCRETING THE FALLS. ■ Although those in a position to know state that the number of visitors to Arapuni was not so large during the holidays as in .previous years, yet many* hundreds of tourists “looked in” at the hydro-electric village during Christmas and New Year. The works are in a most interesting stage, and even the layman would judge them to be up to schedule, if not in advance. Added proof of the assumption is to be found in the fact that one of the companies haying a large contract at Arapuni paid off 43 men on Christmas Eve, its work being so advanced as to warrant it in dispensing with the men. The rock formation on the sides of the Waikato River adjacent to the dam has been sprayed with liquid concrete. Instead of the step-like formation that existed previously at the falls, they are divided, roughly, into three sections. From the heavily-reinforced concrete top the wader will flow over an’incline on to a concrete flobr, from which it will dash over a concrete precipice on to a bed of concrete at the bottom. The sides of the falls are being concreted. From the falls to the spillway the bottom and sides are concreted. From the spillway up the scene presented is most picturesque. The bed of the water passage is concreted with an admixture of concrete and steellined sheets, while the sides look like a linoleum pattern with their hexagonal blocks. From the present appearances it looks as if the work is. te be offt only to a certain point.