HYDRO-ELECTRICITY

Wairarapa Age, 20 March 1920, Page 5

HYDRO-ELECTRICITY

A WANGANUI SCHEME. (By Telegraph.—Pteas Association.) WANGANUI, Last Night. The Wanganui Borough Council tonight decided to take stops to borrow £250,000 to develop a liydro-electric power source on the Wangaehu Rivciy about thirty miles from Wanganui. Reports by experts indicate that this source will provide 2GOO horse-power. The Council's action is influenced by the knowledge that it will be some years before the Government scheme at Mangahao is developed.

THE PRESENT POSITION. At yesterday's meeting of the Masterton Chambers of Commerce, Mr. J. C. Cooper made a statement in connection with .the development of the hydro-electric scheme for the Waira rapa. Mr. Cooper stated in the course of his remarks that the Wairarapa HydroElcctric Investigation Committee was now waiting for a statement from the local bodies regarding the election fox the Board. It was necessary for the local bodies concerned to intimate to the Under-Secretary of Internal Affairs that they desired to hold an election. Each local body had to compile 1 a roll. In this respect the Borough Councils were in the fortunate position of having theirs, "out that was not the case with the other interested bodies. The longer the delay in compiling these rolls, the longer, necessarily, it would be before the district would be gazetted and the election of the proposed Board would take place. The Board would be elected about the same time as the report on the Waiohine was received. '' The Mangahao • will not produce sufficient power for the needs of the Wairarapa. You can take that as definite. In a good season the Mangahao could only give us 20,000 horse-power, and that is only half of what we require," stated Mr. Cooper. "And if the power is also used for cooking purposes, then we would only be supplied with one-quarter of the power we want. The only Government scheme that we can hope to receive any help from is the Lako Waikaremoana project. And that is very dim and distant," concluded the speaker. " Yes. I suppose if we live twenty years longer, we may hoar something of it," commented the chairman (Mr. Joseph Caselberg). The Chamber thanked Mr. Cooper for his interesting resume of the position.