WAITAKI WORKS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18711, 29 October 1930, Page 8

WAITAKI WORKS.

PROFESSOR HORNELL’S REPORT NOT READY YET. “Professor P. G. Hornell’s report on the Waitaki dam is not ready yet,” said the Hon. W. B. Taverner. Minister for Public Works, in an interview at the Timaru railway station yesterday, when on his way to Dunedin. “I cannot say when it will be ”he observed. "It will take some time, and it may be that, as a result of the fact that Professor Horrell is due to leave New Zealand within a few days, his report will have to be completed on his way home, or he may finish it when he gets back to Stockholm.”

Mr Taveimer said that Professor Hornell had been down the experimental shafts sunk by the Public Works Department, and had carefully examined the country encountered. Mr Taverner stated further that it was his intention to pay an early visit to the hydro-electric works, and of securing first-hand information as to the position there, in view of the published statements made concerning the foundations of the dam. “I hope, too/’ said the Minister, “to visit Tekapo during tUe recess.” , , . , Regarding &J) e stand-by plant to be Installed to relief the position at Lake Coleridge, the Minister' said that it was a case of having this waking before next winter. “You could Set , have Tekapo harnessed by that time, said Mr Taverner, “and my duty is to sffk£“ guard the users of electricity before next winter. You will therefore see that we had no alternative but to adopt the speediest means of serving the area affected by the shortage of power from Coleridge.” Asked where this standby plant would be located, Mr Taverner stated that several proposed sites were being investigated by officers of the Public Works Department, and the site chosen would be one most suited to meet the needs of the consumers of electricity.