The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1926. NEED FOR ACTION.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 12 June 1926, Page 8

The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1926. NEED FOR ACTION.

Tho South Canterbury deputation Avhich interviewed tlie Prime Minster yesterday to voice the emphatic, protests of this district in connection with the unreliability of the hydro-electric supplies fro in, . Lake Coleridge, extracted a promise from the Public Works Department that the duplication of tho transmission line would be completed by tlie end of August, and they were also given an assurance that once the new units are in operation ample supplies would be available. Moreover, the Prime Minister gave a definite undertaking that the construction of a new scheme would he commenced next year. For some inexplicable reason the Prime Minister would not discuss the desirability of a South Canterbury scheme, but recounted somewhat discursively on the investigations that are being made. Doubtless the assurances given by the Prime Minister will temporarily pacify indignant consumers but we have a shrewd suspicion that both the Prime Minister - ' and the Public Works authorities have as yet dismally failed to appreciate the immense potentialities for the sale of electrical energy in,both South Canterbury and N.orth Otago which are now in the “no-man’s land,” as it were, as far as hydro-electric development is concerned. What is needed in Wellington is a new vision of the South Island’s power and lighting requirements. The generating stations at Lake Coleridge and Waipori are by no means big enough to meet the rapidly increasing demands for hydroelectric energy. In marked contrast to the leisurely policy of the Public Works Department is the wide-awake activities of the Dunedin city in connection with the Waipori generating plant. As recently as last Wednesday the engineer-manager of the Otago Power Board said: “I have no hesitation in saying - that in five years time all the available power from Waipori will he taken up. At present the output is f 15,000 ‘h.p., with provision for another 10,000 h.p. At the rate applications are pouring in to tho Board, another five years would see the plant working at. its full capacity.” In Otago, with a margin, of five years, tho problem of providing for future requirements 'is already raising the question of' a new source of power, and lias brought before those interested the claims of Lakes. Ilawea. • and Wanaka wliere at a lo,w estimate 50,000 h.p. is waiting to be tapped. In Canterbury, whore the service has been exasperatingly inefficient and tire imminent overloading of tho single station is anticipated by local governing authorities throughout the province, the Public Works Department has for seventeen months hampered a committee to investigate Tekapo the Minister himself suggested should be set up, by failing to nominate its representatives. Hence the committee has not functioned, and valuable time has been lost. We have consistently urged the development of a generating scheme in South Canterbury which would not only meet the requirements of South Canterbury and North Otago, hut would “fill the gap,” as it were, in the scheme of linking up the hydro-electric generating- stations of the South Island. This view is now wholeheartedly supported by a Christchurch journal which said on Thursday: Consideration of the second point stressed .in Timaru during tho week raises the question of providing a generating station nearer the centres consuming the current, and tlie request for th<j promised report on the possibilities ot Lake Tekapo is most reasonable. It would bo unsound policy to delay the matter until the demands made upon Lnko Coleridge forced the position. According to expert opinion, electric power could be generated at Lake Tekapo at a‘ most reasonable cost, and an installation there, sufficient to meet the needs of mid and South Canterbury and North Otago, would complete a chain of stations in tho South Island capable of supplying the needs of a very large area. The growth of the demand lor power in connection with Lake Coleridge should enable tho departmental authorities to estimate with accuracy the time that. must elapse before the enlarged installation there will be insufficient for the purpose, and the question of a station in South Canterbury should bo faced in curler that the needs of tho whole provinco may be provided for. . . . A strong argument in favour of prompt action Is the fact that the provision of a power station at Lake Tekapo would reduce the demand upon Lake Colerldre, and so remove for some year's the necessity for further expenditure there in order to provide additional current. From a geographical point of. view a station so situated that it- would meet, tho needs of South Canterbury and North Otago is desirable. Tt would oomuloto tlie chain of .stations, and provide an -''■equate sunplv of electric power. Tho South Cantcrbuiw people should he able to count on the rondv support of the wlndo provinco in its effort to secure the removal of disabilities which so closely affect its development.

In otag-o, the people are “thinking hig 1 ” in hydro-elec-trie development. The Otago Power Board engineer estimates that in five years Wa.ipori with an output of 25,000 h.p., will ho working to it.s full capacity, while in ten year's, he estimates, every unit of 50,000 h.p. available will he required! What is Canterbury doing to meet, the needs ol: ten yenrs hence ? The day is come to “think big-.” The re are hydro-electric schemes within a stone’s throw of Tim am of most attractive potentialities, which should he harnessed. Hence the immense possibilities of develop-

meait in this distinct, and indcoi. throughout tho whole of Canterbury, should inspire tlie people of the province to insist that the •sprags of delay and indecision should be withdrawn from the wheels of progress and hampering restrictions by way of unreliable and inadequate supplies of electrical energy, he removed without delay. This advocacy of the claims of South Canterbury by the Christchurch newspaper, if significant is deeply appreciated and it now remains for South Canterbury and North Otago, with the influential hacking of the whole province insistently to press upon the new Minister of Public Works (who, by the way, was sworn in yesterday) the indisputable claims of that large stretch of the highly potential territory between Ashburton and Oama.ru, for the speeding up of hydroelectric development in this district to meet the growing needs of both town and country.